Broker to Trading

An offshore Forex broker can be defined as a broker offering Forex trading which is not regulated by the major regulatory bodies. If a trader is located within the remit of a regulator they should trade with a broker located within this region.

If a trader is not located within these regions, then they might consider opening an account with an offshore Forex broker. In practice this typically means that the broker is based or has a branch in a country in the Caribbean region or the Indian Ocean (hence the term 'offshore', as many of these are in fact islands, although in the table above, Belize is not an island but it is located by the Caribbean Sea).

Some brokers which are regulated by the major regulatory bodies may also have an offshore branch where they send traders who are not within the remit of these bodies. The brokers may be regulated by the regulatory body within the country, or they may not (if they are regulated, the regulatory body is listed in the table). These brokers also offer high leverage, however increasing leverage increases risk.

What is the best broker depends on a range of factors, including the type of trading used by the trader. One potential way to think about what the right broker may be is by the online trading platforms offered as each platform has different layouts and functionality which may suit the trader to a greater or lesser extent.

As may be seen from the comparison table, all of these brokers offer MetaTrader 4 (MT4). This is a third party platform available at many brokers which offers features for both the trader who executes their own trades and the trader who wants to use or build online trading robots. Some of the brokers provide the successor to MT4, MetaTrader 5 (MT5).

Best Offshore Forex Broker

What is the best broker can depend on a wide range of factors. However since a pick is needed for this page, Vantage (formerly Vantage FX) is chosen from the brokers in the table as the best offshore Forex broker. The reason for choosing Vantage is that it is a broker regulated in the Cayman Islands offering both MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) and ProTrader (powered by TradingView) with features aimed at Forex traders, and they way traders can trade this market.

Vantage supports a range of account types including ECN. This is a broker for traders who want to trade Forex with automated trading strategies (robots), however traders who execute their own trades can use this broker as well, as MT4 and MT5 offer extensive support for all kinds of Forex trading, from automated to non-automated and ProTrader is a user friendly platform with TradingView charts.

As an ECN STP broker, the trader can trade with a wide range of Forex trading styles, including scalping and news trading. Vantage offers a Raw ECN account which has Forex leverage up to 500:1 (increasing leverage increases risk), spreads from 0 pips and a competitive commission charge of $3 per lot per side, for a minimum deposit of $50. For traders who want to trade without a commission charge, it has a Standard STP account with Forex spreads from 1.0 pips and a minimum deposit of $50 also.

Higher volume traders may wish to try the Pro ECN account, which offers lower commission charges of $1.50 per lot per side and has a minimum deposit of $10,000. For an ECN broker Vantage offers a relatively wide range of markets to trade, including Forex, Indices, Energy, Metals, Soft Commodities and Shares.