Forex Brokers For Malaysian Traders

2. Lowest Spread Forex Broker

Our Test Show IC Markets Has Tight Standard Account Spreads

IC Markets is an Australian-based broker with offices in Cyprus and Seychelles and is one of the largest brokers in the world when it comes to trading volume per day.

We tested the spreads of 20 brokers and found that IC Markets are one of the best choices you can make if you wish to save on trading costs. IC Markets not only one of the tightest spreads brokers in Malaysia for their standard account but also their RAW spread account.

Key Features Of IC Markets

• Top broker for low spreads for all account types
• Choose between MT4, MT5, cTrader Platform
• ZuluTrade and MyfxBook for social trading

Our Test Prove IC Markets Standard Account Has Low Spreads

Regardless of whether you’re a novice or an experienced trader, if you want to avoid the mental gymnastics which come with manually calculating your trading costs, then trading through a standard account is your best option. With this account, your commission costs are included in the spread.

To test performance and cost-effectiveness, we conducted a thorough analysis of standard account spreads offered by 15 of the most popular brokers.

Our evaluation focused on six major currency pairs: AUD/USD, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, and USD/JPY. By combining the average results from these currency pairs, we were able to identify the brokers with the most competitive spreads overall.

From our testing, IC Markets emerged as the broker with the lowest average spread of 1.03 pips. This translates to an average trading cost of USD 9.63. IC Markets averages 0.73 pips for the EUR/USD pair (placing them 1st), 0.82 pips for AUD/USD (2nd) and 1.08 pips for GBPUSD (3rd).

Other strong performers included CMC Markets, with an average spread of 1.11 pips, and Fusion Markets, with an average spread of 1.19 pips.

It’s important to keep in mind that the spread represents the minimum amount that your trade needs to move to realize a profit.

For example, when trading a single lot with IC Markets, the trade will need to gain a value of USD 9.63 in order for you to achieve a profit. In contrast, our least favourable broker would require the trade to gain a value of USD 20.83.

In terms of individual currency pairs IC Markets averaged the following spreads.

IC Markets also did very well in our RAW account testing, with the broker finishing second with an average spread across our 6 tested currency pairs with 0.32 pips (second to Fusion Markets).

Our Verdict On IC Market

Based on our tests, IC Markets has demonstrated the most favourable spreads for commission-free trading. With IC Markets, you have access to 61 currency pairs, and our evaluations yielded the following average spreads for each of the pairs we tested.

IC Markets also offers 17 commodities markets including precious metals like gold and silver, 11 bonds, and over 160,000 stocks.

All these trading instruments can be accessed via MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and cTrader. Or by social trading with Myfxbook Autotrade and ZuluTrader.

IC Markets ReviewVisit IC Markets

3. Best ECN Forex Broker

Blackbull Has The Fasted Tested Execution Speed

Headquartered in New Zealand, BlackBull Markets operates under the regulatory oversight of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). The broker uses a no-dealing desk model and implements ECN (Electronic Communication Network) execution, resulting in very fast execution speeds and tight spreads. In addition to MetaTrader 4 and 5, BlackBull Markets also has TradingView for Forex trading and Myfxbook and Zulu Trade for social trading.

Key Features Of BlackBull Markets

• Fastest Execution Speed For Trade
• Large range of trading platforms
• Good Social Trading Options
• Leverage of 500:1

BlackBull Won Our Execution Speed Tests

If your trading strategy involves capitalising on small market fluctuations, then it’s extremely important you select a broker which has fast order execution and minimal slippage. This ensures your orders fill at or as close to the quoted price as possible.

Likewise, if you manage risk by utilising combinations of limit orders, you want these orders to close your positions out at the price you set. In times of heightened volatility, this isn’t always the case, so it’s important when selecting a broker that execution speeds are fast.

Using various EAs on the MetaTrader 4 platform, Ross Collins (our chief researcher at CompareForexBrokers) tested the execution speeds for market and limit orders across various forex brokers to identify the top performers.

The tests were run using both market making and no-dealing desk brokers, and the results were fascinating.

BlackBull Markets emerged as the clear and undisputed winner, boasting an impressive execution speed of 72 ms for market orders and 90 ms for limit orders.

Our Verdict on BlackBull Markets

As mentioned, we like the sizeable leverage on offer, and the integration with popular trading platforms such as MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and TradingView is a big plus.

This, combined with the fact BlackBull offers a suite of social trading tools, including the BlackBull Copy app, Myfxbook, and DupliTrade, positions the broker well as an attractive venue for all sorts of trading styles and strategies.

BlackBull Markets ReviewVisit BlackBull Markets

4. Best Forex Trading Platforms For Beginners

We Found City Index Has Good Risk Management For New Traders

City Index operatives under the trading name StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd. (“SFP”) and is owned by StoneX Group inc who is listed on NASDAQ as SNEX. Malaysian traders trade with SFP which is a derivatives trading and clearing member of the Singapore Exchange (“SGX”).

Most traders with City Index will sign up with the brokers’ Standard account meaning commission-free trading. It is a good idea to use the brokers’ City Index Web Trader platform as it includes a guaranteed stop-loss.

Key Features Of City Index

• City Index Platform has a guaranteed stop-loss
• Trade 6,300 Global markets
• Unique analytical tools

Trading often involves a learning process that includes a degree of trial and error. As such, most beginners require safeguards to protect their capital while refining their strategies.

A guaranteed stop-loss, sometimes referred to as a G-stop, ensures that your position is automatically closed when the market reaches a specified level.

Unlike regular stop orders, which may suffer from slippage, a G-stop obligates your broker to execute the order precisely at the price you have set.

In some cases, forex brokers will charge a fee for using this order type, or simply won’t offer them at all given they cap the amount of profit a broker can make from any losses incurred by traders during times of market volatility.

Other important features traders should consider include whether the broker offers a comprehensive education library to ensure their trading knowledge is well-rounded, and an easy-to-use trading platform that facilitates smooth execution of trades.

Our Verdict On City Index

For novice traders, we recommend City Index as an ideal broker given they offer guaranteed stop-loss orders to safeguard your trades. While a small premium is required for this feature, we believe it is a worthwhile investment.

Additionally, we found their available webinars and tutorials to be highly informative and easily accessible for traders of all experience levels. As such, their resources received top marks in both the intermediate and beginner categories and we consequently scored them an impressive 25/30

City Index ReviewVisit City Index

5. Best Forex Trading App

We Found Plus500 Offers The Best Mobile Trading Experience

Plus500 prefers to call themselves a CFD provider rather than a Forex broker and why not, their range of CFD products is impressive. To help you trade their range of Forex, Cryptos, Indices, Shares and Commodities the broker has their own trading app (and platform) with an intuitive user interface to help you organise your trading instruments.

Key Features Of Plus500

• Good range of CFD products
• Highly rated in-house developed trading platform
• Guaranteed stop-loss available

Regardless of whether you predominantly trade from a desktop or use a mobile app while on the move, it’s important to choose a broker that delivers a well-rounded service across multiple platforms and devices.

While it has become almost obligatory for forex brokers to offer a mobile app, not all of them are created equally. Better brokers will likely offer enhanced and bespoke functionality when it comes to mobile trading while others will just offer diluted versions of their desktop applications.

When choosing a mobile app, it is crucial to consider certain essential aspects including the user experience (UX), and whether a demo account is available for testing purposes.

During testing, it is recommended to evaluate features such as advanced charting, the ability to switch between different charts, and the availability of various order types like stop orders, trailing stops, and one-click trading. Additionally, it is important to determine whether the app allows for screen size adjustments.

Lastly, one should consider whether the app seamlessly integrates with web and desktop versions.

Fortunately, Plus500 has all the features you should look for in a trading platform. A user-friendly interface, the ability to sort your charts and instruments in an easy-to-navigate matter, customisable charts and integration of the trading app with web trader. The app also has a guaranteed stop loss, a risk management feature only a few brokers offer.

Once you’ve decided on a broker, simply head to the App Store or Google Playstore to install the app. From there, you can register an account, and you’ll be ready to start trading.

Our Verdict On Plus500

Plus500 offers a robust and user-friendly app that boasts an impressive range of trading tools and a simplified user interface. We particularly like that the Plus500 mobile app incorporates the same comprehensive charting and analysis tools as its web-based counterpart.

We thoroughly tested the advanced charting and drawing tools and found them to deliver a comprehensive experience for users on the go. Below we have captured some of the key features and benefits that Plus500 offers.

Plus500 ReviewVisit Plus500

6. Best Copy Trading Platforms

eToro Has The Largest Social Trading Community

eToro trading platform is built from scratch with social trading in mind. If you don’t want to put in the hard yards, learning how to trade, this broker allows you to leverage to the knowledge of its huge trading community (hopefully) for your benefit.

Key Features Of eToro

• Large social trading community
• Indices created based on best traders to follow
• Algorithms that create indices based on most traded shares

For individuals who are new to trading, social and copy-trading strategies present a great opportunity to leverage the experience and skills of more experienced traders. Social trading involves emulating the trading actions of a group of individuals with similar interests whereas copy trading enables a direct replication of someone else’s portfolio.

Both approaches can be valuable for testing and exploring new trading strategies however, it is important to note that not all platforms provide the necessary integrations. If you want to make use of these strategies, it’s important to look for whether MetaTrader Signals, Duplitrade, or ZuluTrade are included in a broker’s offering. If they’re not, it might be necessary to consider alternative options.

Our Verdict on eToro

eToro is a well-known broker which fully embraces social and copy trading.

It is renowned for its innovative approach to trading, which incorporates gamification and social elements.
The platform’s interface resembles a social media wall and provides users with direct access to ideas from popular traders and investors.

Additionally, eToro offers a unique feature called ‘thematic investing’ which enables users to invest in Smart Portfolios, focused on specific industries or asset classes.

Below we have taken various screenshots of the interface which demonstrates how closely the platform resembles a social media network.

eToro ReviewVisit eToro

7. Largest Forex Brokers In The World

Based On Marketcap IG Is One Of The Biggest Broker For Forex

Founded in 1974, IG is one of the world’s oldest and largest forex brokers and is licenced by local financial regulators to operate in more countries than most brokers. For this reason, IG scored a 10 out of 10 for broker trust.

IG has one of the most extensive collections of CFD trading instruments of any broker along with top-quality CFD trading platforms to choose from.

Key Features Of IG

• Largest range of CFD products
• Largest and oldest CFD brokers
• Choose from 4 leading trading platforms

IG currently boats 313,000 active traders which unsurprisingly puts it comfortably in the top ten brokers by trading volume with US $8.6 billion in Average Daily Volume Transactions (ADVT).

We mentioned previously that having a well-balanced and diverse portfolio can yield substantial benefits and therefore, it can be beneficial to use a broker with a broad range of markets.

Generally, we think it’s a good idea to look for a broker which offers a minimum of 50 currency pairs, along with a selection of indices, options, shares, and exchange-traded funds.

From all the brokers we have reviewed, IG Markets boasts one of the largest ranges of trading products we’ve seen, making it very attractive for traders who want access to a wide universe of assets to trade.

Our Verdict On IG

We mentioned previously that having a well-balanced and diverse portfolio can yield substantial benefits and therefore, it can be beneficial to use a broker with a broad range of markets.

Generally, we think it’s a good idea to look for a broker which offers a minimum of 50 currency pairs, along with a selection of indices, options, shares, and exchange-traded funds.

From all the brokers we have reviewed, IG Markets boasts one of the largest ranges of trading products we’ve seen, making it very attractive for traders who want access to a wide universe of assets to trade.

IG ReviewVisit IG

8. Lowest Commission Forex Brokers

Fusion Markets Offers Low Spreads

You most likely have not heard of Australian-based Fusion Markets, the broker prefers to save on marketing so they can keep spreads and commission costs low. And low they are, our test shows this.

Not only do Fusion Markets have among the lowest spreads with their commission-based Zero account but their commission costs are lower than most, if not all brokers we have reviewed. This allows you to save on trading costs in two different ways.

Key Features Of Fusion Markets

• Lowest commission costs of all brokers we tested
• Winner of RAW spreads in our spreads testing
• Large range of Forex pairs.

When selecting a RAW account that uses an electronic communication network (ECN) or straight-through-processing (STP) for trade execution, it’s crucial to closely consider two factors when it comes to trading expenses. The first is the commission while the second is the average spread.

A fixed commission refers to a predetermined fee that brokers charge when executing trades. We analysed the commission costs of 40 Forex brokers and found that Fusion Markets with a round-turn commission per lot of USD $4.50 is 45 to 55% lower than the $6.00  or $7.00 commission brokers typically charge.

It not just the saving on commission costs you will get with Fusion Markets but also among the lowest spreads.

We tested 20 RAW (or ECN) accounts and found that Fusion came out on top for low spreads. The most popular pair to trade is the EUR/USD, Fusion markets averaged 0.16 pips (placing them 3rd behind TMGM and Tickmill with 0.15 pips). While Fusion Markets might have been pipped for this pair, they were clear the best choice with 0.09 for AUD/USD which the next best being TMGM with 0.15 pips.

When trading, we don’t usually trade just one currency pair so to provide a better reflection across the board and an element of fairness, we averaged the results of the 6 pairs we tested with – AUDUSD, EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF and USDJPY. In this test, we found that Fusion Markets came out on top with 0.22 pips ahead of City Index (Australia) and IC Markets.

Our Verdict on Fusion Markets

Fusion Markets is an Australian-based broker which spends very little on marketing and instead, channels much of its attention and capital into developing a superior product – and it shows.

With competitive spreads, rapid trade execution, and hassle-free account opening, there’s plenty to like about Fusion Markets.

To trade with them, you can choose between MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5, and both their standard and raw accounts deliver excellent value.

Fusion Markets ReviewVisit Fusion Markets

How do we select the best brokers?

We have developed an extensive and robust assessment methodology comprised of more than 80 criteria when comparing forex brokers. The forex brokers we review aren’t just given an overall rating but are examined and assessed on their specific strengths and weaknesses.

This is beneficial as traders with specific needs can find the broker which best suits their requirements and trading style.

The key factors we considered were

• Broker trust – is the broker regulated? does the broker have a good reputation? the age of the broker?
• The spreads – how much does it cost to trade with the broker
• Number of trading platforms and type of platforms – everyone has different trading styles, so will be biased to different platforms
• Social trading, copy trading and automation tools – does the broker accommodate your trading style?
• Financial products to trade with – Is the broker likely to offer the instrument you want to trade with

Is Forex trading legal in Malaysia?

In Malaysia, the Securities Commissions Malaysia (SCM) is responsible for oversight of the country’s financial markets.

Strictly speaking, to offer trading services within Malaysia, the broker must hold a capital market service license (CMSL) from the SCM. This licence only permits the broker to offer CFD Shares, indices and commodities.

With Forex CFDs not permitted, very few brokers seek regulation with the SCM and set up a local office. Instead, these brokers set up offshore and use a derivatives trading licence from a financial regulator based offshore.

While the SCM may warn you against using offshore brokers, the practice is tolerated. The important detail is to ensure you are using a broker with some form of regulation and has a solid reputation.

For this reason, we don’t recommend using a broker with no regulation. When choosing a broker look for one that holds trading licences from major financial regulators such as ASIC in Australia, FCA in the UK and CySEC or BaFIN in Europe.

In truth, being based in Malaysia, you will not actually sign with the broker’s subsidiary based in Australia, the UK or Europe but with the offshore entity. This means the broker is holding a derivates trading licence from financial regulators based in countries such as Seychelles, Bahamas, Belize or Vanuatu.

While Forex oversight from an offshore regulator is weaker than one from a major regulator, brokers will muti-regulation have a stronger reputation than those that don’t.

For this reason, we only recommend brokers that meet this criterion.

Assessing Your Trading Goals

Prior to choosing a forex broker, it’s vital that you assess your own trading objectives and then select a broker accordingly. Various factors need to be considered when doing this including your trading style, risk tolerance, available markets, order types, and more.

By thoroughly examining these elements, you will be able to make a more informed decision and select a broker which is most suitable for you. In forex trading, it’s extremely important to have a clear understanding of your risk tolerance as this influences trading strategies and decision-making. To evaluate your risk tolerance, you can consider various aspects like the amount of capital you are comfortable risking, and the time you can dedicate to trading.

By considering these factors, you can establish realistic and achievable trading goals that are in line with your risk tolerance level.

Considering Your Risk Tolerance

Risk tolerance is an important factor to consider in forex trading as it helps to determine the amount of risk one is prepared to undertake. To evaluate your risk tolerance, you can consider various aspects like the amount of capital you are comfortable risking, and the time you can dedicate to trading.

When selecting a broker, it’s important to consider various features which align with your risk tolerance. For instance, certain brokers may provide specialised stop-loss and take-profit orders, reduced or enhanced leverage, negative balance protection, and more. By selecting a forex broker that aligns with your risk tolerance, you can increase the likelihood of a successful trading journey.

Forex Trading Strategies and Techniques

Surviving and thriving in the forex market requires the adoption of effective trading strategies and techniques.

From day trading, scalping and swing trading, to position trading, hedging and algorithmic trading, the most appropriate strategy for you depends on your personal preference and risk tolerance.

In this section, we will explore two popular forex trading strategies – scalping and swing trading.

Scalping

Scalping is an active trading strategy that involves exploiting small price movements in the forex market. Typically, a trader swiftly enters and exits a trade within minutes or seconds, rather than holding for extended periods of time.When it comes to scalping, several leading forex brokers like Pepperstone, FXTM and IC Markets offer scalping strategies for their clients.

These brokers offer a compelling combination of tight spreads, rapid trade execution and fee discounts for professional traders who trade large volumes. As with all trading strategies, it’s important when considering a broker for scalping that you assess their reputation, quality of customer service, trading platform features and fee structure.

Swing Trading

Swing trading is another widely popular strategy that aims to capitalise on medium-term price fluctuations, usually over a period of days or weeks, rather than minutes or seconds.

This approach is particularly attractive in the forex market because of its high liquidity, competitive spreads, and around-the-clock availability.

When it comes to swing trading in forex, one of the most effective strategies is trend trading which can be applied to upward and downward markets. Traders typically make use of simple moving averages (SMAs) to help them confirm a trend and determine entry and exit levels.