What Are The Best cTrader Brokers?

We liked IC Markets for its consistently low spreads and highly competitive commissions. When it comes to platform choice, IC Markets offers cTrader, MetaTrader and TradingView, making it an excellent fit for traders who like to have options. It also stands out for its diverse asset range, covering many stocks and currency pairs. Features like automatic and copy trading are just the cherry on top, making it our top recommendation for Australian traders.

From our testing, we found IC Markets to be the top choice for cTrader in Australia due to its low trading costs and range of markets.

Our analyst, Ross Collins, tested 20 forex brokers consisting of STP and ECN-style brokers to consider which brokers had the tightest spreads. Based on his findings, IC Markets came out as one of the lowest, with an average of 0.19 pips on EUR/USD, beating the industry average of 0.24.

Ross also highlighted that the broker’s commissions were cheaper, too, based on his tests. They were $3.00 per lot traded on the cTrader platform, again outperforming the industry average of $3.48.

With this in mind, we think the figures speak for themselves. IC Market offers low trading costs, which translates into improved profit margins. Low fees are especially helpful if you like to scalp the markets, where every pip saved is significant.

As cTrader is a multi-asset platform, you can trade any of the 1,700+ markets that IC Markets offers. During our testing, we also found that the broker offers a decent range of markets, covering everything from 61 forex pairs to 26+ commodities. However, on cTrader, you cannot trade any of their share CFDs. Instead, you’ll have to use MetaTrader 5, which offers a similar setup and features (including Depth of Markets tools) to cTrader.

Interestingly, IC Markets cTrader is located in London in the LD5 IBX Equinix Data Center, where most liquidity providers are based. This strategic placement is how the broker offers fast execution speeds and tight spreads on cTrader.

We like that IC Markets also offers Level II pricing on its cTrader platform. This platform shows you the available orders for each price level directly from the liquidity provider. With this information, you can better gauge market sentiment without investing in specialist third-party tools.

For example, the cTrader platform comes with the Depth of Market tool, which clearly displays Level II pricing and allows you to execute your trades easily from the tool.

A decent feature we found with IC Markets is that they offer free AutoChartist and Trading Central, two top technical analysis providers.

Both of their services integrate directly within cTrader, making finding new trading opportunities on the platform easy. We think the Autochartist integration is better, as it overlays the analysis over the charts so you can review it in real-time. This feature can certainly help new traders who are stuck for ideas.

We liked FxPro’s swift execution and high-end trading tools; this broker ticks all the right boxes. The account opening process is streamlined, and the platform performs smoothly, offering rapid execution times that can make a big difference in your trading. It’s not just us singing its praises; FxPro clinched the FX Supplier and CFD FX Provider awards from the Online Personal Wealth Awards 2021.

With cTrader being more of a niche platform, we found that FxPro offers some of the lowest trading costs on the cTrader platform for UK traders. Especially considering that only a handful of FCA-regulated brokers offer the platform.

We tested the broker’s spreads across major currency pairs and compared them against 15 other brokers to get an industry average. Our tests found that FxPro averaged 0.32 pips on EUR/USD, which, compared to the rest of the industry, is slightly more expensive than the 0.22 pips the industry averaged. However, with FxPro being one of the few offering cTrader, these trading costs are considered low.

The FxPro VIP program will help you reduce your trading costs by up to 30% on both spreads and cTrader commissions and provide you with access to a free VPS. These are great features, but relative to the rest of the industry, the reduction in fees only brings FxPros’ costs in line. Plus, to qualify, you have to deposit $50,000 into your trading account, which may be out of the scope of most traders.

The broker offers a No-Dealing Desk execution, meaning your orders are processed by the broker and sent straight to the liquidity provider for the best pricing and execution speeds. FxPro’s execution speed is also enhanced with trading servers placed in Equinix data centre LD5 in London, maximising your execution speed by being as close to other liquidity provider servers.

In addition to the fast execution speed and decent trading costs, we liked that the broker offers Trading Central, which integrates directly with the cTrader platform. While testing, we could access all of Trading Central’s automated technical analysis directly within our platform, something that other platforms lack. This tool made finding new trade ideas easy and could be helpful for day traders stuck for ideas.

If you want to use cTrader Automate with their cBots, we liked that FxPro offers a fast VPS service, allowing you to automate your trades during all market sessions. The broker charges $30 per month to get access, which is around the average for a VPS, but we found that if you have a Premium account, you can get the service for free.

We liked Pepperstone and firmly believe it’s the top cTrader choice for traders in the UAE. Its fast execution speeds are a real game-changer, giving you the edge you need in the fast-paced world of forex trading. On top of that, Pepperstone offers a wide array of platforms, not just cTrader, providing flexibility for those who like to switch things up. The commissions are also notably low when you’re using the cTrader platform.

Pepperstone gives you the choice of how you want to pay even on cTrader., either by spread-only (Standard) or through a tighter spreads and commission (Razor) account. Typically, cTrader brokers only offer commission-based accounts, so we were surprised (and impressed) by Pepperstone’s flexibility in accommodating how you want to trade.

The broker’s trading costs are decent too on both accounts. The Standard account averaged 1.12 pips on EUR/USD with no commissions, the lowest spread available for a Standard account on cTrader.

To get a better comparison with other cTrader brokers, we tasked our analyst, Ross Collins, to find the average currency pair spreads for 15 brokers. Based on Ross’ findings, he found that Pepperstone had an average spread of 0.19 pips on EUR/USD, which is the lowest for a cTrader broker.

The commissions are low compared to other cTrader brokers, at just $3.00 per lot traded. Interestingly, the cTrader commission is lower than the broker’s standard Razor account commission of $3.50 per lot traded, so you’ll get a good deal here.

Pepperstone also helps maximise your execution speed by using similar execution models for each account. We found that Pepperstone used an STP model with the Standard account, while the Razor account took advantage of the ECN model. Both are excellent execution models as neither requires the broker to intervene with your trades, ensuring fast execution speeds on the cTrader platform.

In fact, our analyst tested Pepperstone’s execution speeds and found them to be the fastest cTrader broker. This speed helps reduce trading lag and price slippage, which could cost you money. When comparing limit and market orders, Pepperstone was the fastest among cTrader brokers and secured the third spot overall.

The average execution speed was 77ms for limit orders and 100ms for market orders, both very fast for executing your trades (and stop-loss/take-profit orders), which is why we recommend Pepperstone.

Pepperstone has a decent selection of markets to trade, enabling you to take advantage of low costs and fast execution speeds across multiple assets. We found the broker offered 92 FX pairs, 1,000+ share CFDs, 25 indices, and 33 commodity markets covering all the major products, such as gold, S&P 500, and EUR/USD.

We also had a pleasant account opening experience with Pepperstone, which gave us a good impression that the broker’s services are well run. In our testing, we scored the broker 15/15 for the experience, thanks to the combination of having a dedicated account manager to guide us through each step and the speed of processing the account.

We liked GO Markets as a good cTrader option for its standout features in its selection of liquidity providers, which ensures you’re getting low spreads consistently. The commissions are also some of the lowest you’ll find for an ECN-style broker, which makes trading more cost-effective. We appreciate the diverse range of platforms available, giving traders the flexibility to use cTrader, among other options. The add-on tools and features are excellent, rounding off what is already a compelling package for European traders.

One of the most compelling reasons to choose GO Markets is their low cTrader commissions.

The broker charges $2.50 per lot traded on cTrader, which is $0.50 cheaper than other cTrader brokers. Thus, GO Markets has the lowest commissions we’ve found so far. It will help you minimise your trading costs, making the broker a standout option if you trade frequently.

On top of the low commissions, the broker includes a rebate program that pays you a percentage of the spreads based on your trading volume, favouring high-volume traders. To qualify, you must trade at least $10,000,000 notional value per month (100 lots traded), which is rather low if you day trade or scalp in one lot sizes.

When you qualify, we find their rebate program generous, offering up to 30% rebate on all your trading costs (spreads and commissions). By participating in this program, you’ll quickly reduce your overall trading costs and improve your profit margin without doing anything extra.

To trade on the cTrader platform, we had to test the broker using its GO Plus account, which meant we had to pay a small commission ($2.50) and tighter spreads than the Standard account. While testing on cTrader, we found the GO Plus account spread averaging 0.38 pips on EUR/USD, surprisingly higher than the industry average of 0.22 pips. However, accounting for the lower commission costs is still cheaper than most cTrader brokers.

We also found that GO Markets lets you trade all its markets on cTrader, including 49 currency pairs, 1,100+ share CFDs, ten commodities and 16 indices. While testing different cTrader brokers, we were surprised that others limited the number of instruments available on cTrader compared to their other platforms.

For example, we found FxPro to limit its instruments to just forex and major indices, which we think lowers the appeal for traders with multi-asset strategies.