Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers

Pepperstone tops our pick for the best MT4 broker because of its incredibly tight RAW spread of 0.1 pip for the EUR/USD currency pair. According to our calculation, Pepperstone shows excellent zero spread testing with 100% time at minimum spread (outside rollover), zero minimum deposit, and zero cost VPS service on the MT4 trading platform. These are advantageous if you are considering low-cost trading on the MT4 platform.

We also like the integrations with 3rd party tools like Myfxbook, DupliTrade and Capitalise.

Pepperstone is one of the leading CFD and forex brokers worldwide with the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) forex trading platform. The Australian brokerage firm accepts Singaporean traders and although not regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Pepperstone is overseen by the most respected regulatory bodies globally, such as the FCA (UK) and ASIC (Australia).

Key features offered by Pepperstone include:

• The choice of MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and cTrader trading platforms.
• Two trading account types – a commission-free standard account, or a Razor account with ECN-style pricing and commission fees. Swap-free pricing is available for Islamic traders.
• A wide range of CFDs including forex, indices, and cryptocurrency (i.e. Bitcoin).
• No minimum deposit amount, although $200 is recommended.
• Excellent customer support and educational materials including a free MT4 demo account.
• 10 account base currencies to choose from: SGD, USD, AUD, JPY, GBP, EUR, CAD, CHF, NZD, and HKD.
• Active Trader program provides rebates when your monthly trading volume exceeds a certain amount.
• Overseen by seven major regulators – ASIC (Australia), FCA (The UK), CySEC (Cyprus), DFSA (Dubai), BaFin (Germany), SCB (Bahamas), and CMA (Kenya).

The MT4 Forex Trading Platform

MetaTrader 4 is the world’s most popular trading platform thanks to its algorithmic trading features, advanced charting tools, and overall functionality. The software can be used as a desktop or WebTrader trading platform, or as mobile apps for Android and iOS devices.

Algorithmic Trading Tools

When trading Forex and CFDs on MT4, you can fully automate trading using Expert Advisors (trading robots). If you are an experienced trader writing your own Expert Advisors (EAs) you use the MQL4 programming language. If you lack forex trading experience and this is too complex, there is the option to download others’ EAs from the MetaTrader Marketplace online. To help you develop strong algorithmic trading strategies, the MT4 platform has inbuilt backtesting features.

Charting Tools

Technical analysis is a key part of many forex traders’ strategy development process. MT4 comes with advanced inbuilt features to help you analyse financial markets like foreign exchange, including 85 pre-installed technical indicators, different chart types and drawing tools, as well as a selection of timeframes.

Smart Trader Tools

Pepperstone’s exclusive Smart Trader Tools provide free access to a number of additional Expert Advisors and indicators to help you optimise your forex trading strategies and account management. There are 28 add-ons included in the package, ranging from a Mini Terminal, and Correlation Matrix EAs, to Renko and Pivot Point indicators.

ECN-Style Pricing

As well as offering MT4, Pepperstone is many retail investors’ choice of forex broker due to its low spreads on over 60 currency pairs. The broker achieves ultra-tight spreads across a range of forex markets by utilising no dealing desk (NDD) and straight-through processing (STP) execution. This means that rather than set their own bid-ask prices and use their own liquidity to fill your orders (as market makers do), NDD and STP brokers use several external liquidity sources, allowing you to trade the best spreads currently available in foreign exchange markets.

Both account types provide competitive pricing. For currency pairs like the EUR/GBP, AUD/USD, and USD/JPY, Pepperstone’s Standard Account offer low spreads from 1.0 pip with no commission fees, while the ECN-like Razor Account allows you to trade forex spreads from 0.0 pips + a commission fee ($3.50 per side, per 100k traded).

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*Your capital is at risk ‘75.6% of retail CFD accounts lose money’

Our indicators point to IC Markets as great MT4 brokers because of its average of 0.62 pips for the Standard account and 0.02 pip on the Razor account for EUR/USD.

These are very low spreads by all standards if we look at what other brokers offer on their MT5 trading platforms. IC Markets offers zero minimum deposits on all trading accounts for low-cost trading. Like all MetaTrader brokers, scalping and EAs are permitted allowing you to take advantage of all trading conditions.

IC Markets is a top forex broker that allows you to automate trading using third-party social trading tools. IC Markets is a popular broker overall thanks to:

• Ultra-tight spreads from 0.0 pips and fast order execution
• No dealing desk interference with a pool of top-tier liquidity providers
• ASIC (Australia), CySEC (Cyprus) and FSA (Seychelles) regulation
• A diverse range of financial markets including indices, commodities, futures, bonds and forex

As well as manually trading and using Expert Advisors to achieve automation, account mirroring services ZuluTrade and Myfxbook can easily be integrated into your MT4 account and platform.

ZuluTrade

ZuluTrade is a social-copy trading provider that currently services over 100,000 traders from 192 different countries. To automate trading, you can find traders you like (known as signal providers) and copy their trading strategies, eliminating the need for you to constantly monitor markets and execute trades. ZuluTrade’s unique social trading features include:

• Zulu Rank – an algorithm that analyses the performance of signal providers
• Zulu Guard – a risk management tool that automatically monitors your traders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• Simulation – a trading tool that allows you to check your trading strategies and potential profits and losses

Myfxbook AutoTrade

Myfxbook AutoTrade is the alternate option if you want to automate trading using social-copy tools. The account mirroring service enables you to copy the trades of thousands of other signal providers directly into your MT4 account. You retain full control of your account, and there is no need to download any additional software.

BlackBull Markets ranks highest in our execution speed testing with a limit order speed of 77 milliseconds for limit order execution speed and 90 milliseconds for market order execution speed. This allows high-volume traders to capitalise on fleeting market opportunities and reduce slippage. BlackBull Markets is not about speed;

The broker’s RAW spread is among the most decent in class, averaging 0.23 pips for the EUR/USD currency pairs and zero deposit and inactivity fees.

Fast Execution Speeds

BlackBull Markets achieved the fastest execution speeds, based on our testing. While trading with MT4, our team found that BlackBull Markets achieved execution speeds of 72ms for limit orders and 90ms for market orders, which put it at number 1 on our list.

Trading Account Types

Catering to different levels of trading experience, BlackBull Markets offers three tiered account types.

From our analysis, the broker’s spreads are around the industry average for both commission-free (1.2 pips for EUR/USD) and commission-based (0.23 pips for EUR/USD) accounts. Commissions are also in-line with the industry average at SGD $7.

Great Platform Range

Initially starting out as a MetaTrader specialist, BlackBull Markets has expanded to add more and more platforms to its suite.

Along with both MT4 and MT5, we particularly like the addition of TradingView (one of the premier charting tools), as well as cTrader, for advanced algorithmic analysis.

Then there are the social trading tools, Myfxbook and ZuluTrade, which complete a great variety of platforms suited for all different styles of trader out there.

Verdict of BlackBull Markets

Overall, we think BlackBull Markets stands out with the fastest execution speeds we’ve seen, which is backed up by an excellent platform range that caters to many different trading styles out there.

We recommend FP Markets for scalping based on its zero-spread offering that allows scalp traders to enter and exit positions based on short market movement. FP Markets offers an average 0.1 pips RAW spread on the EUR/USD currency pair.

Another feature we like is FP Market’s free VPS service allows traders to conduct faster and more secure trading on the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms.

FP Markets is an ASIC regulated broker that offers a good range of cryptocurrency CFDs. You can trade the most popular cryptos with the broker including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash. You pay no commission fees on top of the cryptos spread, which start from 2.02 for Bitcoin and 3.3 for Litecoin.

FP Markets provide excellent trading conditions when trading all types of CFDs. Execution speeds are fast, averaging less than 40ms, while forex spreads can be as low as 0.0 pips + commission. As well as cryptocurrency, you can also trade the following asset classes and CFDs on MT4 with FP Markets:

• Forex – 60+ major and minor currency pairs
• Shares – 63 different stock CFDs
• Indices – 14 index CFDs on global exchanges
• Commodities – 8 commodities including oil and precious metal financial products

When using MT4 with FP Markets, you can enjoy the following features:

• A choice of no commission (standard account) and commission (raw account) forex trading.
• Automated trading with Expert Advisors and trading platform tools (Myfxbook AutoTrade).
• Fully customisable charts with one-click trading
• Advanced technical analysis tools with 60+ indicators
• Traders Toolbox add-ons that include over 10 apps focusing on trade and risk management.

ThinkMarkets offers an unprecedented range of tradeable CFD products and shares translated to its impressive showing on the range of market categories on our score. Its 0.1 pips RAW spread average on the EUR/USD currency pair plus the choice of MT4 and MT5 trading platforms, and wide range of products help make ThinkMarkets one of our top choices.

ThinkMarkets is an ASIC (Australia) and FCA (UK) regulated broker that provides access to the MetaTrader 4 platform. You can choose between two account types when using MT4, with both commission and free pricing structures available. Both trading account types require a minimum deposit of 500 units of currency.

1. ThinkZero Account: Low spreads from 0.0 pips + commission for major currency pairs like the EUR/USD and USD/JPY.
2. Standard Account: Minimum commission-free spreads from 0.4 pips and average spreads of 1.2 pips for major FX pairs.

As well as the two main account types, if you are a trader that follows Islamic finance principles, an Islamic Account may be available.

Trading Tools & Features

When using MT4 with ThinkMarkets, you gain access to the following trading conditions and tools:

• Ultra-fast order execution
• Automated trading with Expert Advisors
• Autochartist for automated market analysis
• Demo accounts with a virtual balance of $25,000
• 24/7 customer support via phone, live chat, and email

AvaTrade is our top recommendation for day trading because of its tighter fixed spread, averaging 0.9 pips on the EUR/USD currency pair. In contrast, other brokers have a cumulative average spread of 1.8 pips for the same currency pair. AvaTrade MT4 and MT5 trading platforms run with a free VPS service to provide a faster and more reliable order execution for day traders who need to capitalise on fleeting market opportunities.

Accounts and Spreads

Offering average fixed spreads of 0.9 pips for the EUR/USD on its Standard (commission-free) account, AvaTrade provides reliably consistent spreads, particularly suited for day trading.

The fact that you don’t have to pay commissions, keeps your trading costs as low as possible.

Diverse Product Range

We particularly like AvaTrade’s diverse product range, which includes a decent range of over 600 CFDs, as well as complex derivatives like ETFs and options. Having a diverse product range helps diversify your portfolio to amplify your profit making opportunities. This is why we scored AvaTrade a high 9/10 for range of markets.

Excellent Platform Range

Offering both MT4 and MT5, in addition to the broker’s proprietary platforms, AvaTrade Go, AvaSocial and AvaOptions, AvaTrade has an excellent platform range for you to trade its diverse product range and capitalise on market opportunities.

Our Verdict of AvaTrade

Overall, AvaTrade offers reliably low fixed spreads, coupled with a great range of platforms to trade its diverse product range. Lacking an ECN-like account may put off some, but AvaTrade offers enough advantages to appeal to most types of trader.

Eightcap is our top crypto broker as it offers a wide variety of established and emerging crypto derivatives with robust regulatory compliance. With an extensive range of 95 tradeable crypto derivatives, Eightcap allows you to diversify your portfolio.

You can trade with low spreads, particularly using Eightcap’s RAW account with average EUR/USD spreads of 0.06 pips. We also scored Eightcap highly in trading platforms (8/10), with an excellent and diverse platform range, and customer service (9/10).

As a highly trusted broker with a diverse platform and crypto product range, we recommend Eightcap for beginners and experienced traders.

Account Types and Spreads

Both Eightcap’s Standard (commission-free) and RAW (commission-based) accounts offer competitive spreads, from our analysis.

For the broker’s Standard account, you can trade with average spreads of 1.06 pips across the five major currency pairs while its RAW account offers average spreads of 0.30 pips for the USD-backed pairs. Both of these averages are below the industry averages, giving Eightcap a competitive advantage.

Diverse Platform Range for Crypto Trading

Eightcap offers a diverse platform range which includes both MetaTrader platforms, Capitalise.ai and TradingView. We particularly like the inclusion of TradingView and Capitalise.ai, for different reasons. TradingView is our favourite charting platform (with over 100 technical indicators) and Capitalise.ai lets you automate your trading code-free.

Coupled with additional analysis tools like FlashTrader, TradeZone and Eightcap Labs to improve your market analysis and trade execution, we think Eightcap’s diverse platform range is perfectly suited to trade Eightcap’s 95 cryptocurrencies.

Verdict of Eightcap

Overall, Eightcap is our top crypto broker with the biggest range and most diverse set of platforms to trade them with. With competitive spreads across both its accounts, we recommend Eightcap for all levels of trader.