Forex Brokers Accepting Canadian Clients

OANDA Offers Great Trading Execution

OANDA ranks as one of the best Forex brokers in Canada in terms of trade execution. Established in 1996, OANDA is a well-recognised name in the Forex trading field.

Trading Accounts

Traders in Canada have a choice of two types of trading accounts. These are the Standard account and the Premium account.

Both accounts are very similar in that they offer to trade with no commissions. The standard account has a $0 minimum deposit, making it a better choice for retail traders. The Premium account has a minimum deposit and account balance of $25,000.

With such a high balance, the Premium account is better for serious traders. By having a higher account balance, serious traders get extra features, such as faster open order indicators and priority customer service.

Regardless of which account you use, there are no deposit fees and you can fund your account using the following methods for the CAD account option:

• Visa/Mastercard Debit Cards
• Bank Wire
• PayPal

Trading Products

OANDA is arguably one of the most popular forex brokers in Canada. With OANDA, you can access a wide range of financial instruments (+120 CFDs) including +70 FX pairs and CFDs on commodities, metals, bonds and stock indices. However, if you wish to trade shares, then OANDA might not be the best choice.

Margin requirements are set by the IIROC and these can change, but maximum leverage for forex can be as high as 50:1 but is usually around closer to 33:1 for major forex pairs.

Spreads for forex trading start from 1.0 pips on EUR/USD while USD/CAD forex pairs average 2.0 pips spread.

Aside from having a good range of CFD markets and transparent trading costs, OANDA also offers +25 years of historical price data, which is suitable for back-testing trading strategies.

Trading Platforms

OANDA’s proprietary trading platform; FXTrade is an award-winning platform that is available as a download for desktop, web and mobile app with iOS and Android.

OANDA Desktop Offers The Following:

• Trading directly from charts
• 10+ chart types and layouts
• 50+ drawing tools
• Layout customization
• Market data coverage and performance tools

OANDA Mobile Has The Following Features:

• 50 technical tools + 32 overlay indicators
• 11 drawing tools
• 9 charts
• Trade performance analytics to help track and grade your trading history
• Up-to-the-minute market news

OANDA clients, however, can also opt to trade through MetaTrader 4 or through the institutional-grade platform TradingView. Choosing TradingView allows you access to a social trading community of 15.5 million active traders and extra technical analysis features.

Canadian clients can trade Forex with lightning-fast execution ensured by an IIROC-regulated broker

In November 2016, OANDA introduced its proprietary execution engine, known as v20, which currently ensures the execution of trade orders in only 1 millisecond, which equals “1/300th of the blink of an eye.” It allows for successful implementation of both scalping and day trading strategies across a range of asset classes, such as currency pairs, metals, commodities, stock index and bond CFDs on OANDA’s own desktop and mobile trading platforms.

OANDA Regulation

OANDA is regulated by IIROC regulation, which means all retail investor accounts will be compensated for up to CAD 1 million (per covered client) by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF) in an event of broker failure.

However, OANDA will not offer online Forex and CFD trading services to individuals and organizations based in Alberta, Canada unless they are classified as “accredited investors”. To qualify, they will need to satisfy one of the following criteria:

• they qualify as a bank or a non-bank financial institution;
• they have a net income of at least $200,000 over the past two years;
• they have at least $1,000,000 in their financial portfolio;
• they have at least $5,000,000 invested in property.

Like with AvaTrade, as a Canadian trader, only IIROC regulation will matter to you, but it’s nice to know OANDA uses tier-1 regulators throughout the world. These include:

• Canada – by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC);
• The United States – by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The company is also a member of the National Futures Association (NFA);
• United Kingdom – by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA);
• Singapore – by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS);
• Japan – by the Institute Financial Futures Association (IFFA);
• Australia – by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Summary Of OANDA Findings

Overall, OANDA is tailored towards traders who want access to fast order execution speed like scalpers or day traders. Automated traders can also find the +25 years of historical price data very handy for back-testing. On the downside, the all-inclusive spreads charged are on average higher compared to a low-spread forex broker.

View OANDA Review >>Visit OANDA >>

Forex.com Is The Best MetaTrader 4 broker

FOREX.com is one of the most recognised Forex brokers globally, with two decades of business history. The broker is part of the NASDAQ-listed StoneX Group Inc.

Canadian clients will maximize the full potential of MetaTrader trading platforms with the broker’s competitive spreads, exceptional order execution and analytical tools.

Trading Accounts

2 types of trading accounts are available at Forex.com. These are the standard account and the DMA account. Most retail traders will use the standard account since a lower trading balance is needed for successful trading.

Professional forex traders, however, may prefer the DMA account. DMA stands for Direct Market Access, which means you can view the order books of the liquidity providers Forex.com deals with. Being able to do this allows for maximum transparency and control for your trades. All trades must be at least 100k in size.

To use the DMA account, then you should have at least a $25,000 account balance. This account has commissions and these commission charges will vary according to how much you trade. You will also need to be using the Forex.com trading platforms, not MetaTrader 4.

Trading Speed With Forex.com

FOREX.com claims that 99.83% of all client orders are filled in less than 1 second, while its price improvement technology has made it possible for 52.36% of all limit orders to be filled at a better price than the one requested (positive slippage).

Faster trading speed means you have a better chance of the advertised quote, getting full refills and avoiding requirements.

Forex.com Active Trader Program

If you are a high-volume Forex trader, you can reduce your trading costs by up to 15% with cash rebates if you take part in FOREX.com’s Active Trader program.

Joining this program also means any bank fees via wire transfers will be reimbursed by the broker.

Active traders will also benefit from a free-of-charge VPS hosting service for their automated strategies, in case they generate a notional volume of $500,000 per month. Accounts that do not meet the minimum eligibility requirement will be charged a fee of 30 base currencies to cover the VPS service cost.

Trading Products

Forex.com allows you to choose from over 300 trading products. This includes over 80 currency pairs making it one of the largest collections of all brokers.

You can also trade over 22 CFDs covering stocks, hard and soft commodities and indices.

Trading Platforms

Forex.com gives you a choice of 2 trading platforms. These are Forex.com advanced trading platforms that are available via the web and for mobiles and MetaTrader 4. Use of the Forex.com trading platforms is a requirement if you are using the DMA account.

If you use the web version, you can access the following

• Advanced charting tools
• 70 Technical indicators
• 50 drawing tools
• Integration with TradingView for advanced chart
  • 10 chart types
  • 14 timeframes
  • 60+ technical indicators and drawing tools

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is the other forex trading platform available.

By opening a live MetaTrader 4 account with FOREX.com, Canada-based traders will be granted access to 9 exclusive Expert Advisors (including Correlation Matrix, Mini Terminal, Sentiment Trader) and 15 extra technical indicators (including Chart-in-Chart, Highs and Lows, Magnifier) to optimize and control with greater flexibility in their automated trading strategies.

Another advantage includes access for Canadian clients to fully integrate tools into the MetaTrader 4 platform, such as Reuters news, Trading Central technical analysis, FOREX.com research and tools for account management.

Forex.com Regulation

Besides IIROC, FOREX.com is a multi-regulated brokerage with oversite in many heavily regulated countries, which should give an assurance that the broker is trustworthy. Countries Forex.com is regulated in include:

• United Kingdom – by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA);
• United States – by the National Futures Association (NFA) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
• Japan – by the Financial Services Agency (FSA);
• Singapore – by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS);
• European Union – by the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC).

Summary Of Forex.com Findings

Overall, Forex.com is among the best forex brokers in Canada that offers the complete MetaTrader 4 solution. Beginner traders that are familiar with the MT4 platform can get a boost with additional trading tools, free VPS and besides that, they allow many EAs, including scalping.

View Forex.com Review >>Visit Forex.com >>

CMC Markets Has Good Risk Management (GSLO)

CMC Markets is one of the best forex brokers with IIROC regulation that offers risk management tools. Founded in 1989, CMC Markets is among the leading Forex and CFD brokers globally, as it has over 300,000 clients from 70 countries.

CMC Trading Accounts

Both the CFD and corporate accounts are identical. The only difference is the Corporate account includes Reuters news, Morningstar quantitative equity research, client sentiment tools and pattern recognition scanners. As a retail trader, you are not likely to have a pressing need for these tools, so the CFD account will be suitable.

CMC Markets is a market maker (dealing desk broker) which means most CFD products are spread only.

Trading Products

If you are looking for the widest range of CFD products for trading. CMC Markets can be one of the best choices. Very few brokers can match CMC Markets range of 330 forex trading pairs and 90+ indices.

Over 9000 shares of CFDs are available for trading from the exchanges of 23 countries. Like with currency pairs, few brokers can match CMC Markets range of trading products.

Trading Platforms

CMC Markets offers 2 trading platforms. The first platform is their in-house developed signet platform called Next Generation Trading Platform, the other is the popular MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

There are some good reasons to have a serious look at the CMC Markets trading platform. The first reason is their wealth of trading tools. These include:

• 115 technical indicators (35 for mobile)
• Ability to trade directly from charts
• 70 charting patterns
• 12 built-in chart types
• Client sentiment tools
• Pattern recognition tools for price projections
• Chart forum to engage with the CMC trading community

It is fair to say Next Generation offers features that go beyond what you will find with many other trading platforms.

Trading features with Next Generation are not limited to those mentioned above. If you trade with this platform, you also get CMC Markets risk management tools. Besides stop-loss orders and trailing stop orders, common to many platforms, CMC Markets also offer guaranteed stop-loss orders (GSLOs) in exchange for a small premium.

The guaranteed stop-loss Order sets an absolute limit on potential losses and also minimises the risk of slippage. If the market turns against a client, his/her active position will be automatically closed by CMC Markets’ trading software at the price level he/she has specified. In case the GSLO is not triggered, the broker will refund the premium in full to the client.

Disclaimer: The GSLO feature can be accessed only through CMC Markets’ Next Generation trading platform.

Summary Of CMC Markets Findings

Overall, CMC Markets is tailored towards beginner traders who want better trading protection against adverse price swings. Besides the risk management features, CMC Markets clients can also enjoy FX spreads starting from 0.7 pips, access to the MT4 platform, market insights, free education tools and an all-in-one CFD account.

View Forex.com Review >>Visit Forex.com >>

Interactive Brokers Is Good For Spot Currency Trading

Interactive Brokers (IBKR) does not offer CFDs for trade instead, IBKR is the best Canadian forex broker for spot foreign exchange purchases. While IBKR does not offer CFDs, it makes up for this by offering a large range of Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, Futures and Options which you don’t find with other brokers.

Trading With Interactive Brokers

IBKR account choices are quite different from what you find with other brokers. Instead of a standard account and ECN pricing type of account, they offer accounts for specific types of traders.

As a retail trader, you will likely find the “Individual, Joint, Trust” account or “Friend and Family” accounts of most interest.

Regardless of which account you choose, you will have access to IBKR low spreads and commission rates.

IBKRs can offer low spreads because the brokerage sources its pricing directly from a pool of 17 of the largest financial institutions worldwide that take part in the Forex market, As a result, Canadian residents can trade major Forex pairs such as EUR/USD, USD/JPY and AUD/USD with spreads of as low as 0.1 pips and USD/CAD with spreads of as low as 0.5 pips.

With commission, if you trade Stocks, ETFs, Warrants, Options or Futures then you can select between fixed or tiered commissions. While most other products such as Forex offer tiered commissions. Tier commissions are especially beneficial if you are trading high volumes. The more you trade, the lower your commissions will be.

IBKRs charge clients a small commission (ranging from 0.08 to 0.20 basis points times the trade size). Depending on clients’ monthly trade value of spot currency trades, IBKRs commissions are structured in four different tiers.

Trading Products With IBKR

IBKR provides its Canadian clients with direct access to interbank quotes on more than 100 currency pairs that include 23 different currencies (USD, AUD, CAD, CHF, CNH, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, ILS, JPY, MXN, NOK, NZD, PLN, RUB, SEK, SGD, TRY, ZAR and KRW).

You can also trade stocks and ETFs from over 80 stock exchanges and receive some of the best financing rates in the industry. These are margin loan rates of USD 0.75% to 1.57%. Commissions range from USD 0,0005 to USD 0.0035 per share.

Remember, these products are spot, not contracts, so you can take physical delivery of some of these products.

Trading Platforms

Interactive Brokers FXTrader

Along with deep liquidity and competitive pricing, Canadian traders can also take advantage of professional Forex trading tools available on Interactive Brokers’ FXTrader software. Main features and benefits include:

• Trading cell display customization, which allows showing open positions, average cost and P&L data;
• Layout customization to display a single cell up to a 4 x 4 grid layout;
• Support of over 20 order types, including trailing stop limits, brackets, limit if touched, one cancels all and scale;
• Forex quote inversion, which allows clients to compare and trade currencies side by side with Globex FX futures;
• Order detail and margin implication review prior to transmitting trade orders.

As with other IIROC-regulated online brokers, IB will not accept clients based in Alberta, unless they are classified as accredited investors.

IBKR Regulators

• Interactive Brokers LLC is regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC);
• Interactive Brokers U.K. Limited is regulated by the FCA;
• Interactive Brokers Australia Pty. Ltd is regulated by the ASIC;
• Interactive Brokers Hong Kong Limited is regulated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission;
• Interactive Brokers Securities Japan Inc is regulated by Kanto Local Finance Bureau;
• Interactive Brokers Luxembourg SARL is regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF).

Summary Of Interactive Brokers Findings

Overall, Interactive Brokers cater to the need of the clients who want to trade spot-based FX instruments. Aside from this, Interactive Brokers is ideal for traders who have more time on their hands to learn how to use their trading platform, which has a steep learning curve.

View Interactive Brokers Review >>Visit Interactive Brokers Markets >>

Eightcap Is The Best Choice For Cryptocurrency Trading.

Eightcap ranks as the broker with the best cryptocurrency offering for Canadian traders. Established in 2009 and based in Melbourne, Australia, Eightcap is an online Forex and CFD provider, which offers ECN pricing and execution.

Trading Accounts

Eightcap offers a standard account with no commissions, spreads start from 0.5 pips which is very low for a standard account.

If you wish to use an ECN or STP style account, Eightcap has a Raw Account with spreads from 0.0 pips. The commission for this account is AUD $3.50 or equivalent.

Both accounts have a minimum $100 deposit and can be funded using Tether (USDT) or Bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency, which is unusual for an online broker.

MT5 Trading Platform Conditions For Forex And CFDs

With Eightcap, Canadian Forex traders will have access not only to Foreign Exchange but also to assets such as Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Stocks.

Leverage is tiered, which means the maximum available leverage is restricted for larger accounts. This is a good thing as it helps provide an element of protection should movements not go in your favour.

Cryptocurrencies

Eightcap offers over 250 cryptocurrencies for trading. This includes commonly known coins such as Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, Tron, and Bitcoin Cash but also less known coins such as Shibu Inu, VeChain, Neo, Uniswap, PancakeSwap. Most of these coins can be traded against USD, AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP and MXN.

The main thing to be aware of is that while most coins can be traded against the USD when using MetaTrader 4, you need to be using MetaTrader 5 if you want access to the entire range of cryptos Eightcap offers such as when trading against other currencies such as AUD and CAD.

Trading Platforms

MetaTrader 5 is the recommended choice when using Eightcap since it allows you to trade their entire range of cryptocurrencies and shares.

The software offers powerful charting capabilities, allowing for precise technical analysis with 21-time frames and 80 technical indicators and drawing objects. The platform also offers advanced functionalities, such as expert advisor development, optimization and back-testing in the MQL5 environment.

Another advantage of using MT5 with Eightcap includes access to premium liquidity, with pricing being aggregated from a pool of top-tier liquidity providers. This way the broker is able to offer ultra-tight spreads, starting from 0.0 pips on major currency pairs on its Raw account type, while spreads on other CFD products also are very competitive.

Clients can enjoy low-latency execution of their trades since Eightcap’s MetaTrader servers are in Equinix data centres.

Clients can also take advantage of MT5’s hedging or netting modes, one-click trading option and Depth of Market feature, all of which allow them flexibility and control.

If you prefer to trade via the web, the MT5 Web Trader platform version is available, which can be accessed with ease from any Windows, Linux or macOS device, as well as MT5 mobile apps for iOS and Android-based devices.

Eightcap Regulation

While Eightcap is not licensed by the IIROC, the company has good regulations in Australia (ASIC license) and the UK (FCA license). Internationally, it is regulated by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) which applies to Canadian traders.

Summary Of Eightcap Findings

Overall, Eightcap is built for beginner traders which want to access the popular MetaTrader 5 platform. However, on the downside, they only provide a few FX pairs (40 currency pairs) but they compensate with 200 share CFDs and over 250 crypto derivatives.

Eightcap Review >>Visit Eightcap >>

Fusion Markets Has The Lowest Commissions

Fusion Markets distinguishes it from other brokers in the market by offering discounted commissions. The commission is an important expense to consider when trading since you pay commissions costs to open your trade and close your position for each standard lot. If you trade frequently these costs can really add up.

While Fusion Markets is not licensed by the IIROC regulatory body, they do accept traders from Canada, except for Ontario residents, because of local financial laws.

Lower Costs For Canadian Traders With Fusion Markets’ ZERO Account

Commission costs of $3.50 side-ways/$7.00 round-turn is a relatively standard cost when using a no dealing desk/ECN pricing style account. Fusion Markets not only offer lower commissions than their competitors, but spreads that match their competitors.

To open your position for a standard lot (10,000) you will pay CAD 3.00 or CAD 6.00 round-turn. While CAD 1 saving might not sound like much, when you trade frequently using leverage, the commission costs is something worth keeping in mind.

You will find these commissions with Fusion Markets Zero Account. This account offers ECN style pricing, which means spreads are provided from a liquidity pool. Fusion Markets can keep the spread as low as 0.0 pips since there is no dealing desk.

If you prefer to trade with no commissions, there is also a Classic account. Spreads are wider on this account, but they don’t come with additional commission costs.

In addition, traders can benefit from zero non-trading costs, as Fusion Markets will not charge any fees on deposits and withdrawals and any inactivity fees.

Other advantages include:

• No minimum deposit;
• Zero commissions on US Stock CFD trading.
• Funding with crypto wallets

Trading Products

Fusion markets offer the usual products you will find with most brokers and except for cryptocurrencies, these products have no commissions costs.

One thing to note is the high leverage for most products. Leverage is a high-risk instrument, so should be used responsibly. For this reason, Fusion Markets limit the maximum leverage depending on your trading account size. This is a sensible practice on the broker’s behalf.

Trading Platforms

Fusion Markets like other brokers on this list are MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 specialists. Like all good ECN style brokers, EA’s and scalping are permitted.

Should you wish to social trade, then Myfxbook AutoTrade is available. While DupliTrade is available for those that wish to copy trade or mirror trade without the social element.

Fusion Markets Regulation

The brokerage has dual regulation, as it complies with standards of:

• The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in Australia;
• The Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) in Vanuatu.

As a Canadian trader, you will receive VFSC regulation however, expect services in line with that required by ASIC.

Summary Of Fusion Markets Findings

Overall, Fusion Markets is a low-cost online trading provider that caters to the needs of forex traders who want to reduce their total trading costs. There is no minimum deposit with this forex broker so, anyone can open a trading account with no strings attached.

View Fusion Markets Review >>Visit Fusion Markets >>