Online Broker | About | Minimum Deposit | Trading Platforms |
---|---|---|---|
Best User Friendly PlatformPlus500 | Plus500 offers a platform designed to be intuitive and user friendly for the human trader, with integrated tools for fundamental analysis as well as a wide range of technical indicators and is regulated in a wide range of regions About | $100 Minimum Deposit | Plus500 CFD Platform Trading Platform |
Best Automated Trading BrokerPepperstone | Pepperstone provides accounts dedicated to those who want high speed order execution and provides four platforms supporting automated trading as well as offering no dealing desk execution and is regulated in a wide range of regions About | $200 Minimum Deposit | MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView Trading Platforms |
Best All RounderAvaTrade | AvaTrade allows automated trading, provides copy trading, has a user friendly Web Trader and mobile app, offers Vanilla Options CFD trading and is regulated in a wide range of regions About | $100 Minimum Deposit | MT4, MT5, Web Trader, AvaTradeGO, AvaSocial, AvaOptions Trading Platforms |
Brokers tend to fall into categories, which are based on the different ways traders may trade Forex. These ways are not mutually exclusive, however brokers may tend to favor a particular type of Forex trading. It has been a trend that some brokers which previously specialised have also widened their appeal.
Roughly speaking, Forex trading could be divided into two broker categories, automated trading and trading performed by the trader and brokers may favour one type in terms of their feature offerings. To some extent this is in essence a difference between longer and shorter frequency trading, as shorter frequency trading can be too difficult for the human.
Robots may trade on all time frames, however it can be seen that brokers supporting automated trading tend to offer rapid order processing and spreads from 0 (plus commission), which can be important in shorter term trading.
Forex brokers actually offer a wide range of CFD markets (some more than others). However similar methods may be applied to these markets as with Forex, with a commonality being that these are also traded as leveraged markets. So 'Forex Broker' is a type of umbrella term for brokers offering more than Forex. This page will attempt to choose a 'Best Forex Broker' out of each category as well as provide an 'All Rounder'.
Forex is a vast market and is open continuously from late Sunday to Friday (GMT). This differs it from many other markets, which are traded within certain hours during the week. What this means is that there may be a wide variety of trading potential throughout any 24 hour period.
However the market is structured in such a way that there are times and events which might provide greater or lesser market movement and volatility. These include sessions, which divide the market into times focused towards a particular region, and thus may have a greater or lesser effect on certain Forex pairs, relative to another session (e.g. JPY pairs for the Asian session and GBP pairs for the London session).
News trading events are typically releases of data for a particular country and these can have a wide range of effect on affected currency pairs. News events and potential effects are captured in an Economic Calendar, which brokers normally offer (and some trading platforms have one integrated).
Such factors and many others make for a complex trading landscape. There are many approaches to trading Forex and other leveraged CFD markets including methods based on the human trader, for example technical, fundamental and charting analysis and those based on computer programs.
Brokers which are aimed at the human trader may offer a user friendly platform, as the human trader might want such a platform, while robots do not have such requirements, except in as much as they are used by the human trader (however automated trading platforms typically provide tools for the human trader as well).
Automated trading is performed by programs which apply trading strategies (many of which are used also by human traders). There are other approaches to trading Forex, including social trading, where the views of other traders may be examined by the trader and copy trading where the trades of other traders are copied.
So to try and capture a 'Best Forex Broker', there are three categories, 'Best Automated Trading Broker', 'Best User Friendly Platform' and 'Best All Rounder'.
Brokers tend to fall into categories, that is they aim to focus on a particular type of trader or trading (so a pro could be a con and a con a pro, depending on the trader). This is why when chosing a broker, it can be helpful to be aware of the type of broker, and what the features offered allow. Availability is subject to regulation and different features may be offered in different regions.
Best User Friendly Platform Plus500
- Minimum deposit: $100
- Online trading platform: Plus500 CFD Platform
Plus500 offers a user friendly, intuitive trading platform available from watch to desktop. The full features of this platform include integrated fundamental analysis tools, namely an Economic Calendar attached to markets (for example to know when to potentially news trade or when to stay out of a volatile market).
Plus500 also provides a wide range of technical indicators, which are used in technical analysis, the other mainstay of trading analysis.
Plus500 additionally offers the +Insights tool, which provides, as the name suggests, insights into the activities of other Plus500 traders in trending categories, such as most traded and so on.
The Plus500 CFD Platform is for human traders who plan and execute their trades, it is focused on this approach and does not offer automated or copy trading. Plus500 is regulated in a wide range of regions.
Best Broker Automated Trading Pepperstone
- Minimum deposit: $200
- Online trading platforms: MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView
Pepperstone is arguably known as a broker supporting automated trading. On MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView, Pepperstone provides automated trading. Pepperstone additionally offers Capitalise.ai, which lets traders build robots without coding as well as providing research and analysis and other features.
Traders, including automated traders, may want their trades executing quickly and Pepperstone offers execution on the order of 30 milliseconds. Pepperstone provides no dealing desk execution, which may be important for some traders. Forex spreads are available from 0 pips, plus a commisison charge.
Additionally, social and copy trading is available via a range of platform including DupliTrade (subject to availability). News trading is allowed. Pepperstone is regulated in a wide range of regions.
Best Broker All Rounder AvaTrade
- Minimum deposit: $100
- Online trading platforms: MT4, MT5, Web Trader, AvaTradeGO, AvaSocial, AvaOptions
AvaTrade offers a wide range of Forex trading platforms, covering different styles and approaches used by traders, whether trading Forex or other CFD markets (AvaTrade offers 1000+).
AvaTrade provides a range of social and copy trading platforms, namely DupliTrade (which connects with MT4 and MT5 trading accounts) and its AvaSocial platform. AvaTrade also offers a range of features, including AvaProtect, which lets the trader be reimbursed for a losing trade, T&Cs apply.
Traders who want a user friendly platform can find the user friendly Web Trader and mobile traders can use the AvaTradeGO app. Robots traders can find MT4 and MT5 and additionally Capitalise.ai, which is a tool for creating robots without coding. AvaTrade suggests that this tool could be used for news trading.
AvaTrade also provides Vanilla Options CFD trading on the dedicated AvaOptions platform. All this is why AvaTrade is chosen for 'Best All Rounder' as it makes an effort to provide useful features and platforms for a wide range of traders. Finally, AvaTrade is regulated in 9 different jurisdictions.