FP Markets is has one lowest spread and is regulated with ASIC and CySEC regulations. Our FP Markets review found this Forex broker has a good trading platforms, a wide range of CFD markets as well as fast execution speeds.
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When it comes to account types, you certainly can’t fault FP Markets for its flexibility, but it does get a little complicated to understand what’s available and what you’re eligible for. So, let’s go through the options one by one.
The two main account types available are the Standard and RAW accounts, which offer slightly different pricing models.
Whereas the Standard account has a spread of at least 1.0 pips per trade but no commissions per lot, the RAW account offers the opposite: spreads start from 0.0 pips but there’s a fixed commission per lot. The exact charge per lot depends on your base currency.
The higher spread for Standard accounts only applies to forex and metals trading, but the other assets you can trade on the platform have the same spreads regardless of your account type.
In all other respects, the accounts are pretty similar. They have the same opening balance requirements, let you trade the same instruments (including cryptocurrencies and stocks), have the same leverage capabilities, and offer FP Markets’ signature extra-fast execution and the most common order types.
So, which should you choose? If you’re an experienced trader, it tends to be advantageous to opt for a raw account to take advantage of lower spreads. This makes it easier to do scalping, day trading, and other similar activities. This type of account is sometimes called an STP or ECN account since there is no dealing desk which means spreads are provided by the liquidity providers without price intervention from the broker. This explains the lower spread cost.
However, the standard account offers a simpler trading experience, which makes it the best choice for beginners. It also makes more sense for those who trade over the long term, because the spreads won’t affect them as much when they’re only making occasional trades.
One feature that is impressive with FP Market is its execution speed. The broker is a no dealing desk broker (NDD) which means straight-through processing of orders. Several other brokers are offering this feature, so a comparison was made focusing on limit orders. These are orders when a trader sets a buy limit, buy stop, sell limit or sell stop. Based on 25 trades, FP markets achieved an execution speed of 80ms, which was the lowest as shown below.
If you live in Australia, you’ll be able to open an IRESS trading account instead, which isn’t a million miles away from the accounts outlined above but does work differently. You would only choose this account if you want to trade stocks however selected other CFD products are available.
While all accounts on FP Markets have competitive ECN-like pricing, only IRESS accounts have Direct Market Access (DMA) — this means the prices you get will be exactly what the underlying market offers, and your CFD or forex broker won’t profit from you at all.
There are three types of IRESS accounts available: the Standard, Platinum, and Premier options. As you progress from the most basic to the more advanced, you’ll need a higher minimum balance to open the account but will be able to access lower brokerage and financing rates, and fewer fees overall.
The Standard and Platinum accounts have a $55 monthly fee for trading, but this is waived if you generate at least $150 a month in commissions; meanwhile, the Premier accounts waive the fee regardless of activity. Also, the non-Premier accounts require you to pay $22 for ASX live data unless you generate $50 a month, but this is again waived for the Premier account. The catch? Premier accounts are only for professional traders.
FP Markets Standard account is an excellent option for those who want a simple interface and to trade over the long term, while the Platinum account offers lower rates for those who are more serious about trading and will be moving more money in and out of their account. Finally, the Premier account is for professional traders with a high balance, so it will, unfortunately, be out of reach for most people.
Each account offers free delayed market data and free telephone trading.
If you live in Australia and open an IRESS account, you’ll need to download the IRESS trading platform software, which we’ll explain in more detail later.
FP Markets also offers Islamic accounts, which don’t involve any swaps or interest on overnight positions to stay in line with Islamic principles. Rather, you’ll be charged a fee on positions, which is deducted from your account balance.
Although there’s no option to choose an Islamic Account when you sign up, don’t panic. You can switch to one easily by contacting FP Markets, so just set up an account like normal.
Unfortunately, the option is only available on MetaTrader 4 or 5 (not IRESS).
As with most brokers, you can also open a demo account to test the waters before you trade your own money or pay a minimum deposit. This gives you access to the same tools and instruments as other traders without the stress of losing your money.
But unlike most other brokers, you’ll be able to supplement your “experimental” trading with webinars and tutorials to help you get to grips with how the platform works, which enhances the learning experience. And if you have any qualms or roadblocks along the way, you can always turn to the stellar customer service team to help you out or clear any doubts.
The MetaTrader 4 and 5 demo account starts with 100,000 virtual money however this can be modified. You can continue to access this account as long as you don’t leave it dormant for 30 consecutive days.
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As we’ve seen, the spreads you’ll be charged on your trades depend on the account you choose — the RAW account has lower spreads (or 0.0 pip spreads) than the Standard account, but it does charge commission albeit low commissions.
FP Markets really should be commended for its ECN-style pricing, which is among the best in the market. As long as you choose a RAW account, you’re practically guaranteed lightning-speed execution, spreads as tight as possible (the EUR/USD forex pair has 0.0 pips on average 35.36% of the time), and a liquidity pool consisting of the very best providers.
The below module compares average spreads of the RAW account spreads with the average spreads from similar accounts from other brokers. FP Markets is consistently among the best of all brokers when it comes to ECN pricing accounts.
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ECN Broker Spreads
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0.20 | 0.30 | 0.10 | 0.30 | 0.20 |
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0.47 | 0.50 | 0.12 | 0.40 | 0.22 |
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0.20 | 0.30 | 0.20 | 0.40 | 0.20 |
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0.50 | 0.60 | 0.30 | 0.50 | 0.50 |
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0.30 | N/A | 0.30 | 0.50 | 0.40 |
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0.20 | 0.83 | 0.44 | 0.40 | 0.42 |
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0.24 | N/A | 0.17 | 0.54 | 0.30 |
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0.30 | 0.70 | 0.20 | 0.50 | 0.40 |
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0.30 | 1.10 | 0.10 | 0.60 | 0.50 |
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n/a | 0.30 | n/a | 0.60 | 0.50 |
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0.77 | 1.41 | 0.44 | 1.13 | 1.23 |
Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/09/2023
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However, the Standard account does, unfortunately, entail higher spreads than the competition, so if you’re looking for something more suitable for long-term trading, you might prefer to look at an alternative like Pepperstone or IC Markets.
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Standard Account Spreads
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1.12 | 1.22 | 1.40 | 1.69 | 1.47 |
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1.13 | 1.01 | 1.71 | 1.66 | 1.12 |
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0.90 | 1.30 | 1.40 | 1.40 | 1.40 |
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0.70 | 2.20 | 1.10 | 1.10 | 0.60 |
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1.20 | 0.90 | 1.50 | 1.80 | 1.80 |
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1.20 | 1.40 | 1.50 | 1.60 | 1.50 |
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1.10 | 1.20 | 1.40 | 1.50 | 1.20 |
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1.10 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 |
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1.20 | 1.30 | 1.20 | 1.30 | 1.10 |
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1.70 | 1.60 | 1.70 | 2.00 | 1.60 |
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1.20 | 1.80 | 1.90 | 1.90 | 1.60 |
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1.30 | 1.70 | 2.10 | 1.40 | 1.50 |
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1.12 | 1.64 | 0.86 | 1.30 | 1.38 |
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1.32 | 1.95 | 1.37 | 1.70 | 1.40 |
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1.20 | 1.30 | 1.50 | 1.30 | 1.20 |
Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/09/2023
Compare Lowest No Commission Spreads
If you’re using MT5 for CFD trading, you’ll also be able to trade equities that let you short or long shares using margins by mirroring its performance. The fees are the same for both Standard and RAW accounts, with the following commissions and minimum charges:
As we’ve touched on already, fees and pricing work slightly differently on the IRESS account. For one, you’ll have to pay a $55 per month fee for some of the accounts (as outlined in the trading accounts section), although it can be waived if you meet certain criteria.
The equity CFD fees are as follows for commissions per side and minimum charges:
These are lower than the equivalent charges on the MT4 and MT5 platforms.
And the fees for the international futures CFDs are as follows:
There are also some other fees for certain assets, which you can find on the relevant page of the FP Markets website.
Otherwise, most forex fees are built into the spreads, except for forex and metals on the RAW account. In this case, the fees are the same as those charged on other accounts.
There are no hidden charges here — that means no withdrawal fees. However, there’s one exception. Although there are no fees for bank transfer withdrawals to Australian banks accounts, you will face a $6 fee per transaction to withdraw to international accounts.
Fortunately, various withdrawal methods are available (more on this later), so you can get around the problem if you’re prepared to do your research.
For both the Standard and RAW accounts, you can trade with leverage up to 30:1, which means you can trade 30 times more than your account balance (resulting in bigger gains or losses).
This is less than some other brokerage platforms, partly because the Australian government recently restricted how much leverage individual investors (who aren’t Sophisticated Clients or Wholesale Investors) can access. Fortunately, you can get around this by opening the newly-introduced FP Markets Pro Account, which will give you access to a much “healthier” 1:500.
Only people who meet the substantial wealth criteria are eligible, but it should still be emphasized that 1:500 is a lot of leverage — think carefully before you use it, even if you do apply for this account type.
These are the amounts of leverage you can access for retail versus a professional account for each asset class:
Traders outside Australia, the UK and Europe will be able to average the same leverage as professional accounts by default since they won’t have regulation protection from ASIC or CySEC.
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FP Markets has a medium level of regulation with one tier-1 regulator (ASIC), one tier-2 regulator (CySEC) and two tier-3 regulators. I’ll explore these four regulators further.
In Australia, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the gold standard when it comes to regulation. FP Markets trades as the First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd and hold the Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) number 286354. The broker was listed as one of the top ASIC-regulated Australian forex brokers in 2023.
In Europe, a Tier-2 regulator for the area is the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). There are other regulators in the region such as the BaFin in Germany and the FCA in the UK. The broker trades as First Prudential Markets Ltd under their CySEC licence with licence number HR 371/18. The broker came 2nd in our best European forex broker shortlist.
In South Africa, a Tier-3 regulator is the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). FP Markets trades as FP markets (Pty) LTD under the licence FSP Number 50926. The broker also has another Tier-3 regulated entity in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with 126 LLC 2019.
Due to the broker only having these entities with regulation, there are many regions that FP Markets can’t onboard traders including the USA, New Zealand and Japan.
Visit FP MarketsAs with most trading platforms, FP Markets give you a choice between the MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5). But unlike most, you can also use the special IRESS platform if you’re in Australia.
Whichever you go for, FP Markets offers a few ways to trade: you can either use the WebTrader or download the software (for either MT4 or MT5 or IRESS) for your PC. MetaTrader is also an option for Mac but you need to be using an earlier version than Mojave 10.14 or earlier, later version will require an Emulator or WINE.
Let’s briefly look at each trading platform in turn.
MT4 is easily the most popular platform for forex trading — don’t be fooled by MT5 sounding like the new and improved version, because most people still use number 4. Why? It offers pretty much everything you could ever need, including a wide range of features like technical indicators and live price streaming, and a seamless interface.
Key features of MT4 include:
Although MT4 will be the preferred option for most people, don’t rule out MT5. This advanced platform does offer some extra functionality if you know how to use it, such as the option to test strategies for algorithmic trading and the chance to develop your own custom indicators.
Key features of MT5 include:
To ensure you have the best MetaTrader experience, FP Markets also includes the ‘Traders toolbox’. Which is a collection of enhancement features for MetaTrader 4 and 5. Major features include alarm managers, extra tick charts and trade terminals.
The IRESS trading platform is for clients with the Australian arm of FP Markets only. This platform is best if you are intending to trade stocks (however a limited number of CFDs are available.
Once you’ve created an IRESS account, you can use it with the IRESS trading platform, but this is made slightly more complicated by there being a few different options.
You can choose between the more basic ViewPoint Essential or for mobile trading, Iress Mobile (which are both free and available on both Android and IOS). Alternatively, there is the IressTrader or Iress ViewPoint, which have a fee of $55 per month, this is waived if you execute a certain number of trades or make a certain amount of commissions.
All three IRESS account types outlined earlier include ViewPoint Essential.
You have a choice of two social trading platforms with FP Markets. These are Myfxbook Autotrade and FP Markets social trading platforms.
Myfxbook integrates with MT4 (not MT5) and provides an automated social trade copying service from its community of over 90,000 providers. This platform has a rigorous screening process to ensure only quality traders can provide signals to their followers. This process helps remove the need for you to filter through poor performing providers.
In addition to automated copy, MyfxBook provides statistics to help you with your trading. Statistics include performance, drawdown over a certain amount of time and best and worst trades.
FP Markets social trading platform is similar to Myfxbook in that it is a social trading platform that allows you to automate the copying of other traders but is only available for traders in the UK. You can use either MT4 or MT5 but some providers may limit which platform you can use.
Whichever platform you want to use, the signup process is similar.
After beginning the registration process, you’ll be prompted to enter your personal details, including your name, address, and experience as an investor.
Then, you’ll choose your desired trading platform (MT4 or MT5), account type (either standard or raw), and base currency. If you’re in Australia, you’ll also have the option to select the IRESS platform.
The following base currencies are available:
After making a declaration regarding your experience with trading, you’ll finish the sign-up process and be given an account number. However, for an account to be activated (which allows you to actually trade), you’ll need to prove your identity and your address.
Finally, you can go ahead and download your software of choice on the device you want. We gave the MT4 for Windows a go, and this is what it looks like when installed:
All FP Markets trading platforms have an impressive range of features. You’ll be able to open and close positions automatically, trading tools for charting and technical analysis, access the latest news and data. Autochartist is also included which alerts you of trading opportunities via email and notifications on the mobile app.
You can get help from Expert Advisors (EAs) to execute trades, and there are even options for copy trading, which means you can copy the moves of more experienced traders to both earn and learn more.
They also have a Virtual Private Server (VPS) service that can host your strategy, in real-time and automate the trade execution without you needing to sit in front of the screen. It’s also free but subject to a minimum monthly trading volume.
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There are more than 60 trading forex pairs available on FP Markets, which is enough to rival pretty much any major forex trading platform.
These pairs include various combinations of the following currencies:
As well as pairs with more unusual currencies, like the Swedish Krona and Turkish Lira.
FP Markets is really a CFD broker since they offer more than just forex CFDs. In addition to the 60+ currency pairs, you can trade various other assets.
There are a few commodities available, including gold, oil, agricultural products, and silver. Plus, you can trade five cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin), more than 10,000 stocks, and 19 global indices (such as NASDAQ 100, S&P 500, and EUREX).
There are a couple of points to note when choosing CFDs to trade.
1. The selection of stocks is very limited if you are using the MetaTrader 4 trading platform. Only 4 stocks are available with this platform. So you are better off using the MetaTrader 5 or IRESS (Australia only) when trading stocks.
With MetaTrader 5, you can choose from 814 stocks across 9 global stock exchanges including some European exchanges that IRESS doesn’t offer. IRESS allows the trading of even more stocks as well as some futures and ETFs.
Shares
Shares – MT5 vs IRESS
| IRESS vs MT5 shares with FP Markets | IRESS | MT5 |
|---|---|---|
| ASX (Australia) | 2829 | 105 |
| NSADAQ + NYSE (USA) | 1380 + 1524 | 168 + 287 |
| LSE (London) | 972 | 17 |
| HKE (Hong Kong) | 1418 | 105 |
| SGX (Singapore) | 438 | X |
| IDK (Indonesia) | 23 | X |
| Amsterdam | X | 26 |
| FrankFurt | X | 60 |
| Madrid | 32 | X |
| Paris | X | 13 |
ETFs – MT5 vs IRESS
| ETFs with IRESS | IRESS | MT5 |
|---|---|---|
| AXW (ETFs on ASX) | 102 | X |
| ARC (ETFs on NASDAQ or NYSE) | 198 | X |
The main difference between MT4/5 and IRESS (aside from cost and DMA execution) is that IRESS allows for 24-hour trading while MetaTrader can only be used during business hours.
2. Cryptocurrency CFD trading is not available to clients in the UK as the FCA banned the trading of this derivative.
Not a bad selection.
FP Markets offer many different ways to contact their representatives, and customer service is open 24/7.
There’s a Live Chat option on the website, which enables you to get quick help. It’s operated by real people, and if nobody is online (this happened to us), you can still send a message via email and receive a response when someone is back.
You can also phone — there are toll-free numbers for Australia, France, Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the UK, and Germany.
One of the things we love about FP Markets is that there’s a wealth of resources available on the website to help you educate yourself on using the platform — and trading in general.
There’s quite a selection of methods too, including webinars, podcasts, eBooks, and glossaries. You could spend days just trawling through everything uploaded!
The broker has also recently launched what it calls the FP Academy, which offers three levels of trading education depending on your current experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. However, only the Beginner course is available at the moment.
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There’s a minimum deposit of just $100, so you can get started on the platform without being a millionaire or committing all your money. However, for IRESS accounts, you’ll need a minimum deposit of $1000 AUD, which might be higher for some account types.
How about the deposit method?
One thing that we liked about FP Markets was the number of payment methods you can choose between. In addition to the usual suspects, like credit card payment by Visa or MasterCard and bank wires (bank transfers can take up to one business day), there’s a range of more unusual choices:
This gives everyone a viable option, no matter where they happen to hold their money or where in the world they reside.
If you use an IRESS account, you can also fund your account with PayPal, POLi, and BPAY (in addition to the usual options of credit or debit cards, bank transfer, Neteller, and Skrill).
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In a sea of different trading platforms that all have very similar offerings, it’s tough to stand out, but FP Markets really does go above and beyond. Above all, its ECN-style pricing is hard to beat, and the range of assets you can trade and types of accounts and trading platforms available are other winning features.
While fpmarkets.com is a regulated broker with multiple regulators around the world, its head office is based in Sydney. Still, you might want to consider an alternative if you plan to trade outside of Australia and Europe (since FP Markets isn’t subject to the same regulation outside these regions). Also, if you’re a long-term trader and only prepared to trade on a Standard account, you might find the spreads excessive since you can’t take advantage of the low spreads.
So, if you’re a beginner, it’s worth also checking out platforms with good Standard accounts, like Pepperstone and IC Markets. Otherwise, knock yourself out and experience what FP Markets has to offer firsthand.
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Disclaimer: Trading with financial instruments on a live account does have high risks involved, especially when you use the maximum leverage available to you.
Yes, FP Markets is a safe forex broker by all industry standards. This brokerage trading firm is regulated in three tier-one jurisdictions (FCA, ASIC and CySEC) and your money is held in segregated accounts with leading banks (National Australia Bank or Commonwealth Bank of Australia).
At FP Markets clients can enjoy trading in over +10,000 CFD instruments spread across 5 asset classes, access a good range of trading platforms (MT4, MT5 and IRESS), spreads starting from 0.0 pips and ECN trading conditions.
Yes, FP Markets is an ECN broker in the sense they supply forex quotes from a wide network of liquidity providers including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, HSBC, Citibank, etc with no price intervention from the broker. FP Markets call this ECN Pricing
The benefits of trading with an ECN broker includes lower spreads, minimal slippage, lightning-fast order execution speed and deep liquidity. FX Markets clients can access the ECN pricing model through the RAW account with a minimum deposit of USD 100.
Yes, FP Markets accepts retail forex traders from Canada. Actually, FP Markets accepts clients from all over the world excluding retail FX traders residents in the US, Japan or New Zealand.
However, FP Markets is not regulated in Canada with IIROC, the Canada Financial Markets Regulator.
Check out a full comparison of IIROC regulated brokers here: Top 10 Canadian Forex Brokers.
We have listed below some versus pages of alternatives to FP Markets such as Plus500, FXTM, OANDA, Admirals, eToro.
Account Types
Spreads
Leverage
Trading Platforms
Forex Pairs + CFDs
Minimum Deposit
Regulation
Customer Support
Ask an Expert
I’m in Spain, can i use a CySEC regulated broker here?
Yes you can. All regulators part of the European Union are part of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
Regulators that are members of ESMA, are able to serve as the regulator to all other countries that are part of the European Union.
I’m outside Australia, can i use the IRESS trading platform?
FP Markets only offer IRESS for Australian clients. The main reason to use IRESS is to access FP Markets full range of stocks and to use DMA trading. If you are looking to trade stocks outside Australia with FP Markets then you are best to use the MT5 trading platform or consider TMGM who have IRESS outside Australia.
Hi David. I have opened an IRESS account while I was in Australia. Now that I am outside of Australia, just wondering if I can still trade using IRESS. If not, is it possible to use the platform through VPN? Thanks in advance!
Hi Clement, If you have an account with FP Markets Australia then I would expect you should be able to use the IRESS account. As I understand it, it’s only the FP Markets subsidiaries outside Australia that don’t offer IRESS, so in your case I don’t believe you should need to use the VPN.
In the Regulation section, you mention that customers of FP Markets outside Australia and Europe will have to join the subsidiary in St Vincent and the Grenadines instead, and that this will result in different liquidity access. Can you elaborate on this claim? Looking at FP Market’s FAQ pages for both international customers (non-regulated) and Australian customers (regulated under ASIC), they seem to suggest that he liquidity providers will be exactly the same. Perhaps this bit of the review needs to be updated? Would like to know more. Thank you, Mark
Hi Mark,
If you are in Australia you will need to join FP Markets Australian entity regulated by ASIC and in Europe you will need to join FP Markets Cyprus entity regulated by CySEC which is good fo countries in the European Economic Zone. I can see how what is written might be interpreted to mean FP Markets Grenada entity might be using a different source of liquidity to their other entities. I would suggest this is poorly phrased and have corrected it. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Thanks for the clarification David!
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No, our readers are not your fellow readers.