Pepperstone vs Fusion Markets

Is Pepperstone or Fusion Markets cheaper to trade with?

Overall, we find that Pepperstone is the cheaper broker to trade with, however if you are using a STP-style account, Fusion Markets may be cheaper due to their low commissions.

Both Pepperstone and Fusion Markets have low trading fees, allowing you to keep more of your profits from trading. The fees you do pay come in two forms- commission and spread costs.

If you trade with Pepperstone, spreads on both their standard and STP-style accounts are among the lowest in the industry, meaning you get buy and sell prices closer to true market prices.

Fusion Markets has slightly higher spreads compared to Pepperstone; however they are our 2022 winner for lowest commission fees, meaning pay a lower fixed cost per transaction.

Pepperstone has a cheaper standard account than Fusion Markets

The ‘standard account’ offered by forex brokers is commission-free, with the only spreads being the cost you incur. However, the spreads you get will be wider than market prices, as a fee is taken by your broker.

Spreads that you get on Pepperstone start from just 0.6 pips, with this minimum applying to all major forex pairs they offer like the EUR/USD (the most traded currency pair). If you want to trade minor or exotic forex pairs, your spreads start from 1 pip.

In comparison, Fusion Markets have slightly wider spreads, with the minimum spread you pay on their standard account being 0.8 pips on the EUR/USD.

As you can see below, Pepperstone’s spreads are among the best, meaning that if you chose to use their standard account, you can expect much lower trading fees than if you use another broker. These spreads are taken from the broker’s website and are updated each month.

Standard Account Spreads	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/JPY AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/JPY AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/JPY AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/JPY AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/CAD	EUR/USD AUD/USD EUR/GBP GBP/USD USD/JPY AUD/JPY EUR/JPY USD/CAD
	0.77	0.84	1.40	1.19	0.86
	0.82	0.85	0.99	0.89	0.83
	1.13	1.01	1.71	1.66	1.12
	0.70	1.30	1.30	2.20	1.40
	0.80	0.90	1.70	1.80	0.80
	1.20	1.20	1.30	2.00	1.80
	1.30	1.40	1.80	1.70	1.40
	1.10	1.20	1.40	1.50	1.20
	1.30	1.50	1.80	1.80	1.80
	1.20	1.20	1.40	1.40	1.20
	1.20	1.20	1.40	1.40	1.40

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/10/2022

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Both brokers have a low spread STP-style account

Alongside their standard account, Pepperstone and Fusion Markets both provide you with the option to use a Straight-Through-Processing (STP) style account.

This type of account comes with a commission fee on trades for each lot, but you will be able to trade at market prices as your trades are executed with no dealing desk interaction.

Market price spreads can reach as low as 0 pips on both Pepperstone’s Razor Spread and Fusion Markets’ ZERO accounts, meaning that at best, your only cost of trading on their STP accounts will be the commission fee.

On average, both brokers have spreads near zero pips, making both excellent choices if you are looking for a forex broker.

ECN Broker Spreads	USD/JPY USD/CAD EUR/USD EUR/GBP AUD/USD AUD/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/SGD	USD/JPY USD/CAD EUR/USD EUR/GBP AUD/USD AUD/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/SGD	USD/JPY USD/CAD EUR/USD EUR/GBP AUD/USD AUD/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/SGD	USD/JPY USD/CAD EUR/USD EUR/GBP AUD/USD AUD/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/SGD	USD/JPY USD/CAD EUR/USD EUR/GBP AUD/USD AUD/JPY GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/SGD
	0.03	0.11	0.02	0.19	0.05
	0.26	0.47	0.17	0.40	0.24
	0.20	0.30	0.20	0.40	0.20
	0.50	0.60	0.30	0.50	0.50
	0.30	N/A	0.30	0.50	0.40
	0.20	0.83	0.44	0.40	0.42
	0.24	N/A	0.17	0.54	0.30
	0.30	0.70	0.20	0.50	0.40
	0.30	1.10	0.10	0.60	0.50
	n/a	0.30	n/a	0.60	0.50
	0.76	1.41	0.43	1.09	1.22

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/10/2022

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Fusion Markets has extremely low commission fees

The single factor Fusion Markets uses to differentiate itself from other brokers is its low commission fees.

Commission fees on trades are at AUD/USD $2.25/4.50 side-trip or round-turn per standard lot. This means that you would pay AUD $2.25 to open a trade (per 100k units), and another $2.25 to close it, taking your entire commission cost on the trade to $4.50.

Round-turn commission costs in other currencies include EUR €4.05, GBP £3.55, SGD $6.20, or CAD $6.00.

Pepperstone has slightly higher commission fees than Fusion Markets, with round-turn commission fees in different currencies at USD/AUD $7.00, GBP £4.50, EUR €5.20, or SGD $9.10.

However, against other brokers in the forex trading industry, Pepperstone’s commission costs are highly competitive, also making them a great low-cost broker to trade with.

Are Pepperstone and Fusion Markets safe to trade on?

Yes, you will be safe if you choose to trade on either Pepperstone or Fusion Markets. Pepperstone in particular is regulated by a number of countries and regions across the world, and both brokers are popular picks among traders.

In Australia, the EU, the UK, and the UAE, if you are classified as a retail trader, then you will also have access to bonus safety measures to help minimise the risk you take when trading in the form of Negative Balance Protection.

Pepperstone is regulated in more regions

The single best way to stay safe when trading forex is to use a broker regulated by the country you are trading in. Thankfully for traders around the world, Pepperstone is regulated by a wide range of countries, allowing many more traders to stay safe.

The only regulatory environment shared by both brokers is in Australia, where they are regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

If you are located outside of Australia but still wish to trade with Fusion Markets, you will have to use their Vanuatu subsidiary, which is regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC).

As Pepperstone is more widely regulated, you are more likely to be regulated by a reputable agency. The list of regulatory agencies Pepperstone has subsidiaries registered with are:

• The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC, in Cyprus and EEA countries)
• The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA, in the UK and most non-EEA European countries)
• Federal Financial Supervisory Agency (BaFIN, comprising of Germany and Austria)
• Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA, in the UAE)
• Central Markets Authority (CMA, in Kenya and the rest of Africa)

Like with Fusion Markets, if you are not trading in one of the regions listed above, you will be classified as an international trader. This puts you under the regulation of the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB).

The more popular and well-regarded broker is Pepperstone

When comparing brokers, a good indicator of whether a broker is safe is the size of their user base.

Pepperstone stacks up very well, being one of the largest forex brokers you can trade with. Fusion Markets is smaller but has a fairly sizable user base.

Similarweb statistics show that in March 2022, Pepperstone had over 1 million visits to its website, reflecting its international trading reach.

Fusion Markets recorded less than half of Pepperstone’s visits over the same time period, with 415 thousand visits to their site.

In a similar vein, while Pepperstone and Fusion Markets both record scores of 4.7/5 on TrustPilot, an Australian independent company reviewer, Pepperstone’s sample size is twice that of Fusion Markets.

While Pepperstone has over 1.5k reviews, Fusion Markets has around 600, reinforcing the size difference between the two brokers.

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What are the minimum deposit requirements set by Pepperstone and Fusion Markets?

Neither Pepperstone nor Fusion Markets require you to have a minimum deposit. This means that you can fund your account with any amount of money you deem fit.

However, Pepperstone does recommend that you deposit $200 USD or equivalent to meet margin requirements and be able to open trades. Fusion Markets notes that on average, other traders deposit $1,500, giving you a rough range of how much money you can deposit.

Both brokers allow you to deposit via common methods such as Bank Transfers, Visa/Mastercard payments or PayPal. You can also use other eWallets like Neteller, Skrill or FasaPay to deposit funds.

If you are based in Australia, you can also easily deposit funds into your Pepperstone account with POLi or BPay.

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What is the range of platforms available to use on Pepperstone and Fusion Markets?

The platforms shared by both brokers are MetaTrader 4 and 5. The MetaTrader platforms take the top two spots for popularity among forex traders, with their benefits ranging from ease of use to their technical tools, as well as their great trader community base that they have developed.

If you’re looking for even more trading platforms, Pepperstone also has cTrader and TradingView on offer, with each platform having its own unique selling points.

Pepperstone has a better MetaTrader 4 offering than Fusion Markets

The most popular forex trading platform of all time is MetaTrader 4 (MT4). It has built up a reputation of being highly reliable and user-friendly, and it comes chock-full with all the technical indicators and charting capability that you could dream of.

The base MT4 offering comes with 30 different base technical indicators, 12 order execution types, and 32-bit processing power. However, the vast community of MT4 traders has led to the accumulation of thousands of free technical indicators that you can simply add on with the click of a button.

One feature that sets MT4 apart from other platforms (except MT5) is their vast range of Expert Advisors (EAs). These perform various functions that you might require when actively trading, and can automatically hedge your trades, search for arbitrage opportunities, or provide you with up-to-date news.

What makes Pepperstone such a great broker for MetaTrader 4 is that they provide you with a plethora of add-ons to greatly enhance your trading performance and overall experience. These include:

1. Social trading partnerships with Myfxbook (Pelican Trading in the UK), and DupliTrade. These partnerships give you access to thousands of other traders around the world and allow you to very easily copy-trade off professional traders.
2. Technical analysis tools, in particular, AutoChartist and MetaTrader Signals. As implied by the name, AutoChartist comes with superior charting capabilities than MT4, allowing you to go above and beyond to visualise data for your individual analysis.
3. MetaTrader Signals provides you with a set of different trading strategies based upon technical analysis, which you can act upon.
4. Widgets and small add-ons, including Smart Trader Tools and Figaro Advanced Trader Tools. These are forms of widgets and pre-built EAs which can quickly enhance your experience, making your trading much smoother than if you used another platform or broker.

In contrast, the main tool provided by Fusion Markets is Trading Centra including Market Buzz. This draws upon all forms of news and other data to judge real-time investor sentiment, summarising what is going on around you.

One advantage Fusion Markets do have over Pepperstone is the number of currency pairs, this being 90 vs 63.

However, these pale in comparison to the extra tools provided by Pepperstone, giving them the win in this category.

The better MetaTrader 5 broker is also Pepperstone

Much like with MT4, Pepperstone’s array of add-ons simply blows what Fusion Markets has out of the water, making Pepperstone a better broker for MetaTrader 5 (MT5).

MT5 was released as MT4’s successor, however it has not quite reached the same level of popularity yet. In spite of that, MT5 comes with vast improvements compared to MT4.

In terms of base tools, MT5 has 38 technical indicators to the 30 of MT4, more order types and double the processing power, at 64-bit.

One of the most important features of MT5 compared to MT4 is its access to decentralised markets, on top of access to centralised markets. This allows you to trade shares and cryptocurrencies which you previously could not do on MT4.

Pepperstone is the better choice for MT5 because they have more stocks (around 100) across ASX, LSE, NYSE, NASDAQ and DAX stock exchanges plus 12 cryptos. Fusion range of stocks is far smaller, only consisting of around 50 stocks for the US markets. They also only offer 8 cryptos.

As with MT4, you will have access to Pepperstone’s tools and partnerships, ranging from social trading with Myfxbook to AI-crafted strategies from MetaTrader Signals.

Fusion Markets does not improve on Trading Central and Market Buzz with MT5 exclusive tools, and as a result, Pepperstone also wins as our recommended MT5 broker.

You also have access to cTrader and TradingView via Pepperstone

Alongside both of their excellent MetaTrader options, Pepperstone also provides you with two other trading platforms to choose from. These are cTrader and TradingView.

cTrader stands out for their high-speed execution of trades, facilitated by having much more processing power, and their deep levels of liquidity, referred to as ‘depth-of-market’ (DoM).

There are three different levels of DoM: standard, price, and volume weighted average price (VWAP) DoM, ensuring there is always liquidity available to swiftly execute any trades you make.

This makes cTrader a great option if you trade at high-frequencies, or are scalping, as it works in tandem with Pepperstone’s low-cost STP-style ‘Razor Spread’ account.

Meanwhile, TradingView has a particular focus on charting- you can map out up to 25 indicators per chart, giving you unparalleled graphical analysis capabilities.

TradingView comes with a large community of traders, allowing you to share your trades or simply see what others in the market are doing.

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The only option for Islamic traders is Pepperstone’s swap-free account

If are Islamic and wish to trade forex and other CFD derivatives, then your only option will be Pepperstone.

Pepperstone automatically with this category, as between them and Fusion Markets, only Pepperstone offers an Islamic or swap-free account.

Normally when you trade forex or other CFDs, you are charged a swap fee (interest) every time you hold a position overnight. However, sharia law prevents Muslims from paying or accepting interest, as it is deemed as unethical and exploitative behaviour.

To enable you to trade if you are Islamic, some brokers like Pepperstone have come up with a ‘swap-free’ or Islamic account. This allows you to keep trading forex and CFDs while respecting religious laws.

While you will have no swap fees, Pepperstone’s Islamic account charges you an administrative fee every 10 days you hold a position. This account type is also restricted to a select few countries with large Muslim populations, such as Turkey, Egypt, or Indonesia.

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