South African Forex Trading Platforms

IC Markets Is The Best cTrader Forex Broker

If you’re looking for the world’s leading forex and CFD provider offering cTrader platform, our team of experts handpicked IC Markets as the best cTrader broker for SA traders. You can start trading forex on the cTrader platform and benefit from premium trading features and unique design, opting for an IC Markets trading account.

The IC Markets cTrader trading platform has earned the top spot of the best forex trading platform South Africa for the following reasons:

• Deep liquidity from multiple tier-1 banks and liquidity providers
• Extremely low spreads broker (EUR/USD spread starts at 0.0 pips)
• Ultra-fast order execution
• Allows scalping without any restrictions
• Depth of Market
• Smart Stop Out logic

Forex trading with a true ECN forex broker like IC Markets has the advantage of cutting the extra trading costs (spreads, commissions, slippage, etc.) that comes with Dealing Desk DD forex brokers. IC Markets offer SA traders three different account types, but only the cTrader Raw Spread Account comes with the cTrader platform.

Designed for experienced traders, IC Markets cTrader platform offers the following advantages:

• Wide Range of Markets

IC Markets offer access to a vast range of financial instruments and no matter of your favourite currency pairs or CFDs instruments, the cTrader platform can accommodate all your trading needs. IC Markets clients can have access to the following array of asset classes:

• Forex CFD (60 currency pairs)
• Indices CFD (17 indices)
• Commodities CFD (19 commodities)
• Stocks CFD (+120 stocks)
• Bonds CFD (6 bonds)
• Crypto CFD (10 cryptocurrencies)
• Futures CFD (4 global futures)

What’s unique about IC Markets is that besides trading CFDs and all the major currency pairs and minor pairs including the ZAR crosses, South African traders also have the opportunity to trade Future CFDs.

• cTrader Web-Based Application

The ability to access the cTrader platform from the convenience of your web browser without the need for any downloads or installations. The cTrader web-based version is built on HTML5 and offers the same enhanced trading experience as the cTrader desktop version. The one primary advantage of the web trader version is the ability to trade from anywhere in the world.

• cTrader Under 1ms Latency

IC Markets cTrader servers are hosted or collocated in the same data centre (LD5 IBX Equinix Data Centre in London) with the tier one liquidity providers, major aggregators, global banks and other financial institutions to ensure low latency and ultra-fast order execution. The advantage of having direct market access is that you:

• Can profit from every market condition
• No-slippage trading or minimum slippage

The online brokers promoted by Compare Forex Brokers are top forex brokers, regulated by major regulatory bodies; they are in good standing and have industry recognition among their peers. IC Markets cTrader forex platform complies with our high standards and quality process of reviewing the best brokers. Our IC Markets rigorous review process can be studied in full depth here: IC Markets Strengths + Weaknesses.

Get free access to your IC Markets demo account and test your trading strategy with no risk and no obligations. Click the button below to enjoy the full benefits of the IC Markets trading accounts.

FX Pro Offers The Best Demo Account

FxPro Financial Services Limited is a regulated broker by top agencies from around the world, including:

• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in Cyprus
• Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa
• Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in the UAE
• Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) in the Bahamas

The South Africa Financial Sector Conduct Authority FSCA formerly known as the FSB (Financial Services Board) is the regulatory body in South Africa. One of the most critical factors when choosing between various forex brokers if they are authorised by a recognised regulatory body.

FxPro Demo Account Features

Our team of industry experts recommends not only trading through a regulated broker but also choosing a forex broker that offers FREE demo accounts. Forex demo accounts are a great way to try forex trading without actually risking your hard-earned money.

FxPro offers the best demo account package because of the following features:

• No time limits
• FxPro Edge demo accounts across all trading platforms
• Unlimited numbers of demo accounts
• Smooth and simple registration process
• FxPro Direct state-of-the-art account management tool

The FxPro demo account mimics the live trading conditions so you can get a first-hand feel of the overall trading environment before investing your money.

Forex Platforms Offered by FxPro

Please note that you can open the best forex demo accounts for South African traders on a wide range of trading platforms (desktop and mobile App versions) including:

• FxPro MetaTrader 4
• FxPro MetaTrader 5
• FxPro cTrader
• FxPro Edge dedicated for Spread Betting

When you open a forex demo account with FxPro you should consider the following three factors:

• What financial instruments you want to trade
• Order execution types
• The trading platform’s features

For our best forex trading demo account broker review, we assessed and ranked all South African forex brokers and concluded that FxPro is the best option for SA traders. Compared to other South African forex brokers, FxPro offers ZAR trading accounts with a required minimum deposit of ZAR 7,000.

View the complete list of the best FSCA regulated Forex Brokers with ZAR Accounts.

View FxPro Review >>Visit FxPro >>

*Your capital is at risk ‘84.69% of retail CFD accounts lose money’

Plus500 Has The Best Proprietary Platforms

Pluss500 is UK-based online trading on forex and stocks provider listed on the London Stock Exchange LSE offering their own proprietary Forex trading platform. The Plus500 proprietary trading platform was built by traders to meet the challenging needs of active traders.

Our leading industry experts with a combined 50 years of real-world trading experience believe South African traders can be better prepared to win in the forex market by using proprietary platforms. Plus500 proprietary trading platform offers the following advantages:

1) Low Minimum deposit

It’s fairly easy to gain access to the Pluss500 trading platform due to low minimum deposit requirements.  Usually, proprietary platforms come with an extra cost in the form of a monthly fee however, the Plus500 trading platform is free to use.

South African residents can fund their retail investor accounts using the South African Rand using a wide range of deposit methods including:

• Debit cards and credit cards
• Bank wire transfer
• Electronic wallets (PayPal and Skrill)

The minimum deposit for the SA retail investor accounts is $100 equivalent in South African Rand. Overall, the Plus500 trading account is a good opportunity to start trading very small.

2) +2,000 Forex and CFDs Instruments

The financial services offered by Plus500 LTD include over 2,000 Forex and CFDs instruments. The flexibility to trade across a wide range of markets and assets can provide SA traders with more trading opportunities to make money.  South African residents can open a retail trading account with Plus500 to enjoy trading the world’s most popular CFDs such as:

• Indices
• Forex
• Commodities
• Cryptocurrencies
• Share
• Options
• ETFs

Very few online CFD brokers can be proud to offer ETF instruments. Plus500 offers more than 90 ETF instruments, and the trading conditions for CFDs on ETFs are extremely favourable as Plus500 cut their trading commissions to zero. For more details on the Plus500 commissions and fees, please read the Key Elements of Plus500 Fees.

3) South African Regulated CFD Broker

Using proprietary trading software without proper regulation can be dangerous. Our team of industry experts conducted our review process only on regulated forex brokers. Plus500 is not only regulated by the FSCA but it’s conducting its business operations under the umbrella of top-tier regulators like:

• Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in Australia
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in Cyprus

In the Forex industry, regulation is synonymous with three keywords:

• Safety
• Security
• Protection

4) Easy-to-Use Trading Platform

Intuitive and built for both beginner traders and more experienced traders, Plus500 trading platform has been the backbone of Plus500 LTD. Unlike its competitors, Plus500 doesn’t offer the popular MetaTrader 4 platform but, instead focuses to offer SA traders an in-house built proprietary platform.

Additionally, CFD trading can also be conducted through one of the highest-rated CFDs trading Apps. Overall, the Plus500 proprietary platform has an elegant and modern look user interface. To take full advantage of Plus500 platform capabilities, South African traders can open a demo account by clicking through the button below.

View Plus500 Review >>Visit Plus500 >>

*Your capital is at risk ‘72% of retail CFD accounts lose money’

AvaTrade Offers The Best Automated Trading Platforms

AvaTrade offers a dedicated and specialised automated trading platform that allows SA traders to implement sophisticated trading strategies and mirror trading. AvaTrade is an award-winning forex broker with a global presence and a local office in Johannesburg. AvaTrade is a regulated FX broker across 5 continents (ASIC, BVI, FSC, FSA) including South Africa (FSCA regulation).

We value robustness, transparency, functionality when evaluating the reliability of a trading platform. AvaTrade automated trading platform checks all the above boxes, which is why SA traders can find the perfect environment to turn their trading strategies into the perfect algorithms.

Three key features make AvaTrade automated trading software stand out.

Wide-selection of Trading Platforms

AvaTrade is equipped to supply the trading needs of all types of traders by offering 8 different trading platforms that cater to automated trading as well as manual trading:

• MetaTrader 4
• MetaTrader 5
• Automated Trading
• AvaOptions
• Mac Trading
• Web Trading
• Mobile Trading
• AvaTradeGO

South African traders also have the option to develop automated trading strategies on MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 through the use of Expert Advisors (EAs). The AvaTrade MetaTrader 5 platform is more powerful and has advanced features that make it more compatible with auto trading systems.

Automated Copy Trading Features

AvaTrade auto-trading software is comprised of two platforms that are designed for mirror trading or copy trading:

• DupliTrade
• ZuluTrade

DupliTrade is a unique piece of software that runs on the MT4 platform and allows SA traders to automatically copy trade signals and follow in real-time systems developed by pro traders. DupliTrade allows FX traders to build portfolios with their favourite trading signals and trading strategies. The minimum deposit to take advantage of the DupliTrade account is $2,000 equivalent in ZAR.

ZuluTrade is the world’s biggest copy trading network that is now available through one of the 4 AvaTrade account types. This innovative auto trading platform is compatible with the MT4 platform. The minimum deposit of $500 to start trading with ZuluTrade is much lower compared to DupliTrade copy trading account.

Regulation Across 5 continents

We scrutinised closely AvaTrade and found a safe FX broker to trade with. Automated trading is a high-risk endeavour associated with potential system failures and anomalies that can result in losing money. Due to the high risk involved, our team of experts determined that it’s important for AvaTrade to be regulated by appropriate financial regulatory authorities.

Regulated and trusted across 5 continents, AvaTrade customers are protected by major financial entities like:

• FSCA in South Africa
• IIROC in Canada
• BVI
• ASIC in Australia
• FSA in Japan
• CBI in the UK

As you would expect from an international forex broker, AvaTrade strives to provide a competitive trading environment that complies with all the standards imposed by tier-one regulatory bodies. You can start trading and testing their automated forex platforms by opening first a demo account.

Visit AvaTrade >>

eToro Has The Best Cryptocurrency + Social Trading

eToro the world’s biggest social trading platform among other advantages has the following key features:

• Automatic copy trading features
• Leverage of up to 30:1 for SA forex traders
• Large selection of tradable cryptocurrencies (98 coins)

A wide variety of coin pairs including the most established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin or Ripple can be found on the eToro trading platform as well as some of the top-performing altcoins (Stellar, Tron, ZCash, Binance coin, etc.).

Unfortunately, compared to other Forex and CFD providers, eToro only offers a 2:1 leverage on cryptocurrency trading. As a relatively new market, cryptocurrencies possess a high risk and are extremely volatile, so trading crypto with high leverage may not be suitable for all types of investors.

eToro Allow Selling Cryptocurrencies

South African traders can sell cryptocurrencies via the eToro cryptocurrency platform. According to eToro Terms & Conditions these types of positions are treated as CFD positions which, means you can benefit from the same level of protection that comes with CFD trading. Only when you open a non-leveraged crypto trade, you won the coin rather than the CFD contract.

South African traders can open a position to sell one of the following coins:

• Bitcoin
• Ethereum
• Litecoin
• Ripple
• Binance Coin
• Bitcoin Cash
• Dash
• EOS
• NEO
• +88 more…

eToro Offers Zero Commission Crypto Trading

eToro non-leveraged cryptocurrency trading allows you to skip the exchange fees and trade with zero commissions. But, on the other hand, all leveraged crypto CFD trades incur the standard overnight and over-the-weekend fees that come with CFD trading.

“eToro does not charge any deposit or trading fees other than spreads.”

Below you can review a snippet of the expected eToro overnight fees on crypto CFD trading. Please note that for non-leveraged positions, there are no fees charged.

eToro Crypto CopyPortfolio

eToro crypto CopyPortfolio gives South African residents the option to get diversified exposure to the top-performing crypto coin portfolios. To gain access to this rewarding opportunity, you need to invest a minimum deposit of $5,000 equivalent amount in South African Rand. The CopyPortfolio is designed to offer SA traders sustained low-risk returns. However, if you want to get exposure to potentially bigger returns, you can opt for the eToro Top Trader Portfolio, which features the most successful and profitable traders on the eToro social trading network.

Overall, eToro offers the most competitive environment for social trading and a large selection of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency trading on the eToro platform can be extremely rewarding, as you can benefit from ultra-fast order execution measured in milliseconds, which can rarely be found on the top crypto exchanges. For a complete review of the world’s biggest social trading network, please read eToro’s Top 3 Strengths and Weaknesses.

*Your capital is at risk ‘68% of retail CFD accounts lose money’

ForexTime (FXTM) = Best CFD Trading Platform

Our team of experts at Compare Forex Brokers found that ForexTime offers the best CFD trading platform among South African forex brokers. As an FSCA regulated broker with FSP No. 46614, FXTM offers its customers to choose from +250 CFD instruments that can be traded across the most popular forex trading platforms:

• MetaTrader 4
• MetaTrader 5

You can trade at your convenience directly from your:

• Desktop
• MAC
• Mobile
• Tablet

The latest technology of the MetaTrader blends perfectly with the FXTM exceptional trading conditions, tight spreads, fast order execution, and high-tech forex trading tools. SA traders can speculate not only on the price movement of major and minor foreign exchange currency pairs but also on their favourite stocks.

In addition to the best choice of the best CFD trading platform, ForexTime FXTM also offers SA traders the opportunity to start trading CFDs instruments across shares, commodities, and indices.

Share CFDs Trading on FXTM

South African residents can trade share CFDs with ForexTime, which offers its customers access to over 160 US company stocks, including high market cap stocks like Apple, Bank of America, and Facebook. FXTM offers its clients real-time price quotes directly from the world’s biggest stock exchanges – NYSE and NASDAQ.

Our FXTM review process conducted by our industry’s leading experts found 3 key features that make stocks CFDs trading on FXTM a good experience:

• Flexible leverage (up to 500:1)
• The tight spread of 0.1 on the Standard Shares account
• Slippage and Order Execution are verified by PwC

Commodity CFDs Trading on FXTM

The second CFD products offered by FXTM are trading CFDs on commodities. ForexTime allows you to trade on the price movements of commodities from the energy sector. With ForexTime, SA traders can speculate on the most popular commodity markets:

• US crude oil (spot)
• UK Brent oil (spot)
• US natural gas (spot)

These innovative investment tools are a great way to diversify your investment portfolio. Commodity CFDs trading can be conducted through both FXTM’s MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms.

Indices CFDs Trading on FXTM

The third category of CFD products offered by FXTM is CFDs on stock indices. ForexTime gives South African traders real-time access to major indices that are traded worldwide. FXTM offers an encompassing selection of the world’s most traded stock indices. With FXTM, CFD traders can trade the world’s most popular indices:

• S&P 500
• NASDAQ-100
• DAX 30
• ASX 200
• FTSE 100 Index

Based on key factors such as:

1. The ability to go both long and short on CFD indices
2. After-hours trading session availability
3. Tight spreads that are as low as 0.1 on the ECN MT4 accounts

Our industry experts recommend trading CFDs on the most popular asset classes with ForexTime (FXTM) CFDs trading platforms.

View FXTM Review >>Visit FXTM>>

Markets.com – Best Forex Trading Platforms + Broker

Markets.com is a multi-regulated broker that is licensed and regulated by South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA). The broker provides South African traders excellent trading conditions with a great range of trading platforms, tools and CFDs.

As a market maker broker, Markets.com offers commission-free spreads where compensation for the broker is included in the spread. Minimum forex spreads are low, starting from 0.6 pips for the EURUSD currency pair.

In addition to forex trading, you can trade CFDs derived from various asset classes:

• 67 forex pairs
• 28 commodities
• 41 indices
• 7 cryptocurrencies
• 2031 shares
• 60 ETFs
• 4 bonds
• 23 blends

CFD and Forex Trading Platforms

You can choose between four popular trading platforms when signing up to Markets.com – MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), Marketsx and Marketsi.

If you want access to a wide range of sentiment and analysis tools, Marketsx is the best platform, while Marketsi is a great choice if you are looking to focus on share CFD trading. Alternatively, if you are looking to focus on automated trading with Expert Advisors, MT4 and MT5 are great options.

Marketsx – Unique Analysis Tools

The broker’s proprietary trading platform is a user-friendly web or mobile trading platform that provides access to Markets.com full product range of over 2,200 CFD financial instruments. Compared to other mainstream trading platforms, Marketsx offers a unique set of sentiment, technical and fundamental analysis tools:

• Technical Analysis: Sophisticated charting tools with advanced technical indicators,  plus a Related Instruments tool that shows you how two assets react and correlate with one another.
• Sentiment Tools: a range of tools that analyse sentiment data, giving you an idea of traders’ confidence in different financial markets, and whether the forecast is positive, negative or neutral.
• Fundamental Analysis: advanced alerts and notifications, financial commentary, Dow Jones newsfeeds and Thomas Reuters stock reports.

Marketsi – Stock Trading Tools

As well as Marketsx, the broker offers a second proprietary trading platform with a focus on stock trading. To help you develop diversified share trading strategies that match your trading needs and risk profile, the platform provides an Investment Strategy Builder with two key features:

• The Strategy Builder can be used to ensure your portfolio is diversified and suits your risk tolerance. You can search for stocks based on region, industry and sector, with the option to rebalance your portfolio as needed.
• The Strategy Template (expected to be available soon) provides share portfolio templates specifically created to match your desired risk level while being diversified across various industries and sectors.

MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 – Algorithmic Trading Strategies

MT4 and MT5 are ideal if you want to automate trading using trading robots, known as Expert Advisors (EAs) within the MetaTrader community.

Algorithmic trading strategies are becoming increasingly popular, as you can save a lot of time and effort once EAs are developed. To write your own EAs, the MQL4 and MQL5 programming languages are used. Backtesting features are available on both MT4 (single currency) and MT5 (multi-currency).

If you are new to trading and do not feel comfortable writing your own EAs, you can download thousands of different systems from the MetaTrader Marketplace.

Trading Conditions and Execution Speeds

As a market maker broker, Markets.com sets their own bid-ask prices and fill orders using internal liquidity sources. As well as the same spreads, each trading platform offered by Markets.com provides fast execution speeds with minimal slippage. On average, orders are executed within 0.1ms, resulting in 86% of Markets.com clients experience positive or no slippage when trading forex and CFDs.

Markets.com – Overall Best Broker & Trading Platforms

Markets.com is an ideal broker for any level of experience or trading style. Whether you want to automate trading, create diversified stock portfolios or access advanced sentiment tools, the broker offers a suitable trading platform.

• Tight commission-free forex spreads starting from 0.6 pips.
• Market access to over 2,200 different CFD products.
• MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Marketsi or Marketsx as trading platform options.

If you want to explore Markets.com trading platforms prior to risking real money, the broker offers MT4, MT5, Marketsi and Marketsx demo accounts.

View Markets.com Review >>Visit Markets.com

*Your capital is at risk ‘70% of retail CFD accounts lose money’