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Home » FCA » Trading Guide » Compare Forex Brokers

THE 2024 LEADING
FOREX BROKER COMPARISON

Compare trading platforms, products, account types and costs and more

Best MT4 Forex Brokers
Best MT4 Forex Brokers
Trading Platforms
Trading Platforms
Best Forex Trading Apps
Best Forex Trading Apps
High Leverage Forex Brokers
High Leverage Forex Brokers
Best Forex Brokers In UK
Best Forex Brokers In UK
Best Automated Trading Platforms
Best Automated Trading Platforms

Why Compare Forex Brokers Before Trading?

As a UK trader, whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader, there are a number of considerations to make when selecting a Forex and CFD broker.

How do you choose the best forex broker in the UK?

To choose the trading platforms, start by considering your trading style, trading budget and overall goals.

If you’re a scalper, focus on execution speeds and spreads. If you need a diversified portfolio, look for brokers with the MT5 platform, which offers access to a wider selection of financial markets. If you’re new to trading, focus on brokers known for supporting beginners with excellent educational materials.

What are some of the best forex brokers in the UK?

We’ve identified Pepperstone, Eightcap, IG Group and OANDA as the best forex brokers in the UK due to their winning combination of excellent trading conditions, powerful tools and excellent selection of assets to trade.

Can these UK brokers be trusted?

Yes, these UK brokers can be trusted because all hold a license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA is among the most stringent regulators in the world, with some of the strongest investor protections for traders.

Forex Spreads Comparison of UK Brokers

Pepperstone has the best spreads in the UK. The table below sets out the Lowest Spread Forex Brokers so you can compare:

RAW Account Spread Comparison
0.10 0.20 0.60 0.40 1.00
0.06 0.27 0.23 0.42 0.59
0.17 0.30 N/A 0.54 0.68
0.50 0.60 1.10 0.80 1.30
0.30 0.50 0.60 0.50 0.50
0.52 0.80 1.41 0.86 1.11
0.23 0.65 1.00 0.90 0.90
0.02 0.05 0.36 0.19 0.23

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 09/01/2024

Which is the best forex broker in the UK?

Pepperstone is the best forex broker in the UK based on our independent testing and analysis. This broker offers an excellent combination of competitive spreads, a wide variety of trading platforms and the fastest execution speeds of any broker we tested.

What are the costs and fees of trading forex in the UK?

The costs and fees of trading forex in the UK will vary depending on your broker and account type.

Generally, Standard accounts will have wider spreads, but you won’t pay any commissions. Raw accounts offer spreads as low as 0.0 pips – though these will fluctuate with the market – and you’ll pay a commission to execute your trades.

You should also consider indirect costs when choosing a broker. Minimum deposits, funding and withdrawal fees and overnight swaps can add up depending on your trading budget.

What are the best forex brokers for the different styles of trading in the UK?

There are as many different styles of trading as there are traders. Below is a short list of the best brokers for each of the main types:

  • Mobile trading – Plus500
  • Scalping – AvaTrade
  • Swing trading – Interactive Brokers.
  • Algorithmic trading – Pepperstone

Can I trade with high leverage in the UK?

Yes, you can trade with high leverage in the UK. Many of the top forex brokers in the UK are also high leverage forex brokers, offering the maximum leverage allowed by the FCA: 30:1 for major currency pairs, 20:1 for minor currency pairs and 222:1 for professional traders.

Which forex broker offers the most currency pairs in the UK?

IG Groups offers the most currency pairs in the UK – over 100 as of January 2024. This broker’s offering includes major pairs, minor pairs and an extensive collection of exotics.

Which forex broker offers the most CFDs in the UK?

As of January 2024, Saxo Bank offers the most CFDs in the UK with over 60,000 different symbols. CFDs, also known as contracts for difference, allow traders to diversify their portfolios with exposure to a wider range of markets and profit from up and down markets.

FAQ

Is trading forex good for beginners in the UK?

Yes, forex trading is good for beginners – with the right broker. If you’re new to forex trading, focus on brokers with excellent educational materials, good customer support and powerful risk management tools. You can use our guide on Forex Trading Platforms For Beginners to help you choose a suitable platform that caters to novice traders.

What is a forex broker, and what do they do?

A forex broker is a financial services company that acts as an intermediary between retail traders and the interbank forex market. Brokers offer access to currency pairs and act as a clearinghouse for orders to buy and sell.

How do forex brokers make money?

Brokers make money in two ways: spreads and commissions. The spread represents the difference between the bid and the ask price for a currency pair, and the broker typically includes a markup to cover the cost of executing an order. For some account types, brokers will allow minimum spreads as low as 0.0 pips but charge a commission to cover its execution costs.

How much money must I deposit to begin trading forex?

The amount of money you’ll need to deposit to begin trading forex will depend on your broker. Some brokerages do not require a minimum deposit, but others will ask you to maintain a balance to trade.

Is it possible to trade forex without a broker?

No, it is not possible to trade forex without a broker. Retail traders can’t independently access the interbank market where institutions and banks trade currencies, as it requires significant capital and infrastruction.

What are the non-trading fees at forex brokers in the UK?

Non-trading fees for forex brokers in the UK can include minimum deposits, deposit and withdrawal fees, swap fees and inactivity fees.

How would I know if my forex broker is regulated in the UK?

You can find out if your forex broker is regulated in the UK by visiting the FCA website and searching the FCA Financial Services Register. Once you’ve located a broker’s record, you’ll be able to confirm both that it’s licensed and that it has no pending disciplinary actions.

You can also visit the broker’s website, where you will find the FCA licence number on their home page.

Which forex broker has the best trading platform in the UK?

The forex broker with the best trading platform in the United Kingdom will depend on your specific trading needs. If you’re interested exclusively in trading forex pairs, you’ll appreciate Pepperstone’s MT4 for its user-friendly nature. If you need advanced charting, look at TradingView.

Before you start currency trading and trading with cryptocurrencies, you can start with a demo account to experiment with your preferred trading platform’s features. In an MT4 demo account, you will be able to access not only forex pairs but also crypto, ETFs and equities without the high-risk nature of being an active trader in the real market.

Which forex broker in the UK is best for MetaTrader 4?

Pepperstone is the best MetaTrader 4 broker in the UK. The broker’s Smart Trader Tools package includes additional indicators and drawing tools that set its Pepperstone offering apart from other brokers. Other tools include Capitalise.ai for automated trading and DupliTrade for copy trading.

Can you do copy trading in the UK?

Yes, you can do copy trading in the UK with a number of online brokers. eToro is a true copy trading platform while Pepperstone provides 3rd-party copy trading software like Pelican, DupliTrade, and MetaTrader Signals.

What is spread betting in the UK?

Spread betting is a financial derivative that allows traders to speculate on price movements in a financial market without purchasing an asset (similar to CFDs). There are a limited number of UK spread betting brokers listed on our spread-bet.co.uk sister site.

forex brokersBest FCA-regulated Brokers

Choosing a regulated forex broker is important as a trader for the protection of your funds and dealing with a legitimate broker that offers financial services in your country. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a top global regulator and the main financial regulatory body in the UK. As a UK trader, you have the benefit of many trustworthy, FCA-regulated brokers to choose from.

UK clients can choose from top forex brokers including Pepperstone, CMC Markets and Eightcap. To narrow your search down further, each broker has a unique competitive advantage that sets it apart from other brokers. Whether you focus on low spreads, automaton or copy trading, there’s a broker for everyone, based on your trading preferences.

Our team has researched all the top brokers that are FCA-regulated and come up with our best forex brokers in UK.

low spread fx broker

Lowest Spread Forex Brokers

Choosing a forex broker with low spreads is a major cost consideration for UK traders. This is because forex trading involves many costs, including commissions and other fees, that all add up. By choosing a broker with low spreads, you will greatly reduce your overall trading costs.

The spreads that most brokers offer tend to be variable, which means they can widen during high volatility, resulting in higher spread costs for you. Factoring in commissions and other fees only increases the amount you are paying per trade. While there are forex brokers that offer zero commissions, these market-makers generally have wider spreads to factor in for the lack of commissions.

This makes your decision hard to pick a low-spread UK forex broker. For all this reason, the team at CFB has extensively researched and come up with the Lowest Spread Forex Brokers for you.

Forex Trading Apps

Best Forex Trading Apps

Having the best forex trading platform is vitally important to improve your overall trading experience. In today’s tech-heavy landscape, many brokers offer forex trading apps for those of you who like to trade on the go. Not all trading apps are created equally and some are better than others.

Important features to look out for in a mobile trading app include ease of use, trading tools available and range of tradeable markets. Some brokers offer third-party trading apps as well as their own, proprietary apps, while some offer both. A good mobile app should, however, make your life easier as a trader, not simply be there to supplement a broker’s main trading platforms.

To help you decide, the expert team at Compareforexbrokers has researched and reviewed the top Best Forex Trading Apps for you.

forex trading platforms UK

Trading Platforms In UK

Choosing the right forex trading platform is essential to have a great user experience. Factors such as an intuitive interface, reliability and useful trading tools are key. While MetaTrader 4 is the most popular forex trading platform in the market, there are plenty of other great platforms. These include proprietary platforms that a broker has developed in-house (E.g. Forex.com) or other third-party platforms like cTrader or MetaTrader 5, MT4’s upgrade.

After you’ve chosen the right trading platform for you, it’s then vitally important to choose an appropriate forex broker. This is because of additional features like account types, charting tools for technical analysis and social trading and copy trading tools that the broker offers.

For this, you can check out our Trading platforms in UK which include brokers such as IG, Interactive Brokers and OANDA.

automated trading software uk

Best Automated Trading Platforms

With the rise of algorithmic and bot trading, there are many great automated forex trading solutions out there. You can choose Expert Advisers using MetaTrader 4 (or MT5) or platforms specifically designed for automated trading. The best brokers offer solutions that cater to both audiences.

Generally suited for more experienced traders, trading robots amplify the effects of manual trading, increasing profit potential and the amount you can trade. There are also brokers such as eToro, that offer social and copy trading solutions to mirror successful trading strategies. All of the best automations can pick out trading opportunities that a human couldn’t, by analysing a huge amount of data at a faster speed.

Our bestautomated trading platforms in UK list has all the best brokers that offer these automated trading solutions.

UK Methodology for Broker Reviews

Being a UK trader, you have a lot of trading considerations to make when choosing the right broker. While this is no small task, the expert research team at Compareforexbrokers has its finger on the pulse, testing and reviewing all the top brokers in the industry. Major factors we have considered include:

  1. Trading Accounts (retail investor accounts)
  2. Trading Costs (spreads + other fees)
  3. ECNs (commission-based) vs Market Makers (no commissions)
  4. Trading Platforms
  5. Social/Copy/Algorithmic trading tools
  6. Financial Instruments
  7. Customer Support
  8. Regulations

These are the primary factors that we know are most important to you as a trader. There are also many secondary factors including risk management features and educational materials. Risk management could refer to order types that help prevent negative slippage such as a guaranteed stop loss order (GSLO). It could also refer to features such as Negative Balance Protection, which some brokers offer to prevent your account balance from going into negative territory. The educational materials a broker may offer can help improve your knowledge as a trader with insightful market research, educational videos or interesting articles.

These pages are all UK-focused, so we have focused on brokers that regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority), the main UK regulator. However, a lot of these brokers have multiple regulators, meaning they offer trading services in multiple countries or regions. Other regulators a UK broker may have subsidiaries in include ASIC in Australia, CySEC in Cyprus and FSCA in South Africa.
As UK trader, we recommend choosing a broker regulated by the FCA. However, there are many popular brokers that are not. Some top brokers that aren’t regulated by the FCA include FP Markets, Saxo Bank and VT Markets.

While we focus largely on FX trading, we also cover CFD trading. As a forex trader, we know this doesn’t exclude you from trading CFDs too. We also try to pick the best broker in that particular category, even if it may not be the best at everything. There could be a particular currency pair, trading platform or copy trading tool that the broker specialises in.

When writing our UK broker reviews, we are always honest in our information, highlighting both the pros and cons of that broker. Having said this, please be aware that all information is general in nature and not to be treated as trading advice. We recommend you do your own research before making a final decision when choosing a broker.

Understanding the Risks of Forex Trading

Foreign exchange and CFD trading involve a lot of risks. This is especially true when trading on margin, and particularly using leverage. The higher leverage you use, the more market exposure you have and the more you can lose. For beginner traders, it’s especially important you manage your exposure so you don’t risk losing more than you can afford.

The maximum retail leverage in the UK is up to 30:1 for foreign exchange. For minor currency pairs, it’s 20:1. While you can gain more exposure and potentially boost your profits, it also opens up your downside risk if the market goes against you. As such, before you start trading, it’s important to educate yourself about leverage and gain some trading experience first. Implementing risk management tools, such as a stop-loss order, will also help prevent big losses. The forex market can be highly volatile and it’s important to trade forex responsibly.

Additionally, given how popular online CFD and FX trading are today, there are plenty of sharks out there waiting to take advantage of inexperienced and naïve traders. This makes it all the more important to choose a trustworthy broker, particularly one that is regulated in the UK. That way, you will avoid scams from unethical brokers who may pose as legitimate advisors offering their services to profit illegally. So before you sign up and trade forex with a potential broker, make sure it is regulated by the FCA in the UK.

 

Understanding The Risks of Forex Trading

Disclaimer: Leveraged instruments are risky. Do your own research before trading on margin or with leverage. Trading with leverage is at your own risk.

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