Best (Trusted) CFD Brokers and Trading Platforms of 2024

Identifying the best CFD brokers can make a big difference in avoiding losses. This review will walk you through the best CFD trading platforms to trade with.

CFD brokers facilitate the trading of instruments by clients through market making and availing financing to the clients. They act as the intermediaries between the traders and the market to provide the opportunity to trade stocks, currencies, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, and other assets/instruments.

CFD brokers earn profits from the spreads (difference between buy and sell price), commissions they charge on these transactions, fees charged on overnight financing provided to clients that are trading on margins, hedging, and from trade losses by clients.

With CFD Brokers, clients do not have to own the underlying asset but earn profits or losses through speculating on a particular asset’s/instrument’s price. Therefore, they are popular among clients.

However, most CFD traders make losses, and, although there are many factors influencing that, identifying a good CFD broker could make the difference. This tutorial reviews the best CFD brokers to trade in the current year.

CFD Trading Brokers/Platforms – Top Listed

Please refer to the chart given below:

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Choosing a Good CFD Trading Platform

• Consider the potential costs before using a CFD trading platform, which could arise from the amount they charge in spreads, the commissions that are charged on overnight financing when clients are trading on margins, and the amount charged on deposits and withdrawals.
• Evaluate the trader’s resources and support such as education, market analysis, financing/leverage, negative balance protection to leveraged clients to help when the markets are extremely volatile, customer service, security, and bonuses/promotions.
• Type of assets you are interested in trading and what is offered in a CFD trading account with a given platform.
• Features of their platforms and trading software such as demo trading accounts where clients can test trading in live markets, types of trading accounts, (in-house and third-party professional) trading tools supported on their platforms which determine the trade opportunities, extent a trader can analyze opportunities before placing trades, order types, and trading flexibility availed.
• Reputation, licensing, regulation, etc.

Types of Brokers

• Market Maker/Dealing Desk Brokers: They make the markets for the retailer traders by buying from liquidity providers (such as interbank FX banks) in large chunks and reselling to retail clients in manageable package sizes. Order executions are in-house and faster, spreads are fixed, trades do not have commissions, and there are lower entry barriers.
• Straight-Through Processing (STP)/Direct Market Access: They give retailers direct access to the interbank FX market. Traders have to manage large volumes at the interbank level.
• Electronic Communications Network (ECN Broker): They pass client orders to the interbank market but not necessarily to liquidity providers. For instance, they can channel to prime brokers who can take these orders. They are all STP-type brokers. The orders have variable spreads as quotes come from different sources.

List of the Best CFD Brokers

CFD trading platforms that are popularly known:

1. XTB
2. XM
3. Forex.com
4. RoboForex
5. eToro
6. IG
7. InteractiveBrokers
8. City Index
9. Plus500
10. CMC Markets
11. AvaTrade
12. Pepperstone

Comparison Table of Top Brokers For CFD Trading

Detailed Reviews:

#1) XTB

Best for active traders who get up to 30% trading rebates.

XTB is one of the best CFD trading platforms that facilitates the trading of stocks (over 1,700 instruments in this category) and ETF CFDs among other assets such as forex, commodities, and indices, over the web, xStation desktop app, and iOS and Android mobile app xStation.

Clients can also choose MT4 depending on where they trade from (MT5 is not supported at all). On the platform, you can trade CFDs on over 1,800 stocks and 135 ETFs.

CFD brokers do not charge commissions on standard accounts but only on professional accounts. The latter appears more expensive for trading amounts higher than $250/sterling pound/euro. The former is a favorite for retail clients.

With over 500,000 clients around the world, it is one of the best-rated CFD brokers on third-party review sites (e.g., it scores 3.8/5 out of 769 reviewers on TrustPilot).

Year Established: 2004
Headquarters and Other Locations: London, U.K.; and 12 other global locations. Accessible globally.

Features:

• Free deposits and withdrawals.
• Up to 5x leverage on ETFs and stocks CFDs; up to 10x for commodities CFDs; up to 20x for indices CFDs; up to 30x for forex CFDs.
• xStation trading platform provides a variety of trading features, like charting and indicators; market, limit, stop, and trailing loss among other trade order types; news; economic calendar to help investors/traders be alert on forecasts; market sentiments (all open order status given in graphs, etc.), heatmaps and stock scanners. Spreads are wider though, and there is no automated trading on xStation. xStation does not offer strategy backtesting.
• xStation provides up to 29 drawing tools and 37 technical indicators better than MT4’s.
• Investment baskets on the xStation platform open long and/or short positions on all instruments in a group.
• STP broker who follows the ECN pricing model.

Why do we recommend XTB for CFD trading?

• No commissions on trades. It also offers rebates (up to 30%) for active traders.
• Market analysis and demo trading support for up to 4 weeks for anyone trying it (makes it good for beginners), provides access to 2100+ instruments (both CFDs and non-CFDs), mobile CFD trading, global availability, 20 years of experience, regulation, and licensing (FCA, KNF, CySEC, and FSC).
• Trading education – Trading Academy with courses up to expertise level, videos, tutorials, and guides). Learn what CFDs are, leverage in CFDs, etc.

How to trade CFDs on XTB?

Step #1: Register for a CFD trading account on the website. Fill in the details, and upload the necessary documents for verification.
Step #2: Live account activated in 1 to 2 days. Start trading CFDs with open positions.
Step #3: Deposit money using accepted deposit methods such as credit cards.
Step #4: Go to xStation5 by going to www.xtb.com -> login -> xStation platform. Visit Trading -> ‘Market watch’ -> search for the instruments desired. Open its charts, read other information about the instrument, and use the Buy/Sell buttons to enter a trade.

Pros:

• Low minimum deposit of $1.
• Regulated in tier 1 jurisdiction. Thus, it is a safe, proven platform. It is also regulated by four different commissions.
• Zero dollar commissions on share CFDs.
• The XTB Lower Spread Group program provides trade rebates (5% to 30%) for active traders who manage between 20 lots and 1000 lots per month.

Cons:

• Charges inactivity fees.
• No third-party trading tools are supported, such as MetaTrader 5, which is preferred by many CFD traders. It uses the in-house/proprietary trading platform xStation.
• Only stocks and ETF CFDs. No crypto or crypto CFDs.

Commissions, Spreads, and Fees: Target spreads between 0.00013 and 0.6 points for Forex; 0.015 to 126 points for indices; and 0.012 to 105 points for commodities.

No commissions are charged (apart from Equity CFD and ETF trade fees for standard accounts). Pro accounts attract a commission. Other charges include swap (overnight/rolling fees).

Deposits and withdrawals are free except for amounts smaller than thresholds (for instance 20 USD for amounts below $100). Skrill deposit is 2%. Other fee types are swaps which are about -0.01% per rollover.

Website: XTB

#2) XM

Best for copy trading and flexibility in the use of trading platforms.

XM is one of the top CFD brokers given the variability of CFDs one can trade there. It offers over 1,000 trading instruments in total, including CFDs on forex, CFDs on indices, CFDs on commodities, CFDs on stocks, CFDs on metals, and CFDs on energy.

People can trade on over 16 platforms including mobile MT4 and MT5, web, virtual private server (VPS) rapid trade execution software, and XM platforms. Customers who maintain a minimum of $5,000 can request a free VPS as an add-on while others can pay a monthly fee of $28 for the same.

We feel it is surely one of the best CFD trading platforms, as it also provides personal account management through which one can access proprietary trading indicators namely Ribbon, River, Ichimoku, Bollinger Bands, ADX and PSAR, and Analyser indicators.

Year Established: 2009
Headquarters and Locations: Cyprus; Spain, New Zealand, and Australia; Also available for online traders in over 190 countries.

Suggested Read =>>  Top Forex Brokers of the Biggest Financial Markets

Features:

• Up to $5,000 trading bonus. Demo accounts were also provided. No deposit or withdrawal fees.
• Trade with leverage of up to 1:1000 on Micro, Standard, and Ultra Low accounts.
• Support for MT4 and MT5 mobile apps. Over 16 platforms, including own/proprietary software.
• No commissions on Ultra Low accounts, spreads as low as 0.6 to 1 pip on all accounts, up to 300 open positions per client, 0.1 lot size minimal trade and $5 minimal deposit, optional Islamic accounts, swaps, etc.
• Negative balance protection on Ultra Low accounts.
• Positions can be helped open overnight; roll-overs are also available with roll-over fees.
• Regulated at tier-1 level by CySEC, ASIC, FSC, DFSA, and FCA.
• Features of the trading software include charts, over 30 technical indicators, personal account managers, etc.
• ECN type of brokerage.

Why is XM one of our favorites for CFD trading?

• It has over 75 awards in different categories. Multiple awards such as Best CFD Broker (2023 by City of London Wealth Management Awards); best crypto CFD Broker by Financial Expo Egypt; best broker in customer service; best CFD Broker in MENA region (CFI.co magazine).
• Variability of CFD instruments. Supports trading of CFDs in over 5 assets.
• Options for personal account managers. Daily technical analysis, market research, video tutorials, daily webinars, CFDs, forex seminars, etc.
• Copy of trades. MQL5 signals in-built into trading platforms. Choose from multiple signal providers. You can use it with Expert Advisors. You can deposit funds into the MQL5 account via PayPal, WebMoney, Qiwi, Credit/debit card, etc.

Here is a video tutorial for your reference:

How to trade CFDs with XM?

Step #1: Sign up on the website (click or tap Open a Live Account) or app, log in, and proceed with submitting details to register. Submit a copy of your ID and proof of address in the member’s area (you will be directed to do so in the registration email received).
Step #2: Deposit money via wire, online wallet, card, or other method. You can also claim deposits and other bonuses available.
Step #3: Download the trading tools of your choice or use the web platform to start trading. To place a trade, search for the instrument for instance from the Market Watch and click/tap “Trading” or “New Order” and customize your order. You can also use copy trading where you copy strategies from expert traders. One Click trading, if enabled, also allows one to place trades right from the charts.

Pros:

• The signal market for copy traders is a big plus.
• Stop-out level mechanism to protect leveraged accounts against negative balances. The account closes automatically when the equity level reaches a certain point (20% for Ultra-Low, Micro, and Standard accounts). This is in addition to margin calls at 50% and 100% levels depending on account type.
• Trade crypto CFDs for 24 hours, 7 days.
• Wild range of CFD assets and instruments.

Cons:

• Charges inactivity fees.
• No client-customer support is provided on weekends.

Commissions, Spreads, and Fees:

Spreads: 0.00016 to 0.3 points for FX derivatives; 0.003 to 9 for commodities (margin 2%); 0.05 to 25 indices (margin 0.2% to 1%); 0.02 to 0.35 for precious metals; 0.005 to 1.2 for energies; 0.002 to 40 for cryptocurrencies (margin 0.2% to 2%); 0.0042 to 0.16 (margin 0.5%) for turbo stocks CFDs.

Further Reading => A Comprehensive Review of CM Index

Swap/rollover/overnight position fees depend on your interest rates; $7 for USD 100,000 transaction – it is charged per transaction; Dormancy fee (90 days dormancy) is $5 per month.

Website: XM

#3) Forex.com

Best for asset managers.

Forex.com is famous for its very low/tight EUR/USD forex trading pairs and wide range of forex pairs selection (over 80 pairs). Although it supports CFD trading for forex currencies, shares, indices, stocks, commodities, crypto, and metals, these are not available for US clients.

Forex.com provides very scanty support and information for CFD-traded assets and information. Some of the trading tools that can be used to trade on Forex.com include MT4, MT5, cTrader, proprietary/alternative platforms, and automated trading.

Year Established: 2001
Headquarters and Other Locations: UK, U.S., Canada, Cyprus, Cayman Islands, South Africa, India, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong. It is also available online globally.

Further Reading => List of the BEST Forex Brokers in UK

Features:

• 4,500 stocks CFDs, 18 stock index CFDs, 20 ETF CFDs, 26 commodity CFDs, 12 bond CFDs, and 4 crypto CFDs.
• Automated trading. Social/copy trading is also supported.
• Free VPS for qualified accounts.
• Demo accounts.
• $100 deposit minimum amount.
• No rollover rates applied. The company sources institutional rollover fees and passes them to clients at competitive rates.
• Expert advisors.
• Smart signals (algorithmic tools monitor global markets to help highlight trading opportunities), trade suggestions driven by statistics, technical analysis per market, advanced charts to aid technical traders (provides over 80 indicators, 50 drawing tools, 14-time intervals), performance analytics, market news, alerts, and trading academy. It also provides webinars, tutorials, lessons, and courses.
• Up to 67% rebates on direct market access trading commission for active traders based on their monthly rates. Commissions per USD trade range from $25 to $60 for monthly volumes of between $1 to $2 billion and $0 to $100 million respectively.
• Commissions are charged only on shares CFD trading.

Why do we recommend Forex.com for CFD trading?

• We found that they have very popular brokers with high ratings on third-party platforms (for instance, a 3.9/5 rating from 242 reviews on TrustPilot.)
• Automated trading and copy/social trading supported. This eases the way for beginner traders.
• Huge variety of CFD products. Forex.com supports over 1500 CFD products/instruments in total spread across stocks, crypto, indices, bonds, commodities, and metals.

Pros:

• Rich trading research and suggestion tools.
• CFTC and FCA regulated. Also by many other financial institutions and commissions like CIMA, ASIC, FSA, NFA, and IIROC.
• Social/copy trading. Algorithmic trade opportunity suggestions are also available.
• Negative balance protection. Guaranteed stop loss order type is also supported.

Cons:

• High fees on stock CFDs.
• Slow account opening (2 business days). Inactivity fees are charged.
• Lower maximum margin (1:30) compared to other top platforms reviewed.

Commissions, Spreads, and Fees: Raw spreads are as low as 0.1 pips (standard spreads are 1.2 pips); minimum commission of 0.08% or $0.018 per share for US stocks of CFDs; inactivity fees is $15 per month after 12 months of inactivity.

Website: Forex.com

#4) RoboForex

Best for low spreads, regular trader rebates, bonuses, and loyalty programs.

RoboForex offers tight spreads starting with 0 pips and advanced copy trading features, making it one of the top CFD brokers.

We recommend it as it is one of the best brokers given its vast bonus programs including up to 60% profit sharing bonus, up to 120% classic bonus, up to 20% loyalty program; up to 15% cash back rebate, and up to 10% in account balances every month.

The types of CFDs tradable include energy, metals, over 30 crypto CFDs; and over 12,000 stocks CFDs including Amazon, Facebook, Siemens, etc. The company also offers five types of accounts.

Year Established: 2009
Headquarters and Other Locations: Belize City, Belize; Lithuania, and is available in almost all countries except a few restricted (see in the cons section of this review).

Features:

• $10 minimum deposit for Cent, ProCent, and Pro accounts ($100 for R Stocks Trader account). Demo accounts are available without needing to deposit. We offer no deposit minimums on Prime and ECN accounts.
• Windows, iOS, Android, and web MetaTrader 4 and 5. iOS, Android MobileTrader, iOS, Android, and web-based StockTrader; WebTrader for iOS, Android, Windows, and browsers.
• Leverages of 1:100 for energy CFDs; 1:1000 for metals CFDs; 1:50 crypto CFDs; 1:20 for stock CFDs; and up to 1:100 leverage on futures CFDs. The minimum margin rate is 1% for indices and spot oil CFDs. Spot oil and indices CFDs are available on Pro, ECN, and Prime types of accounts. This provides spreads as low as 0 pips to 0.4 pips on Pro accounts. The minimum order is 50 to 100 lots.
• Negative balance protection. This includes stopping the loss of levels and other methods of protecting your account. The company sets the balance to zero in case of very volatile markets.
• Market Analytics.
• Zero deposit and withdrawal fees except for withdrawals to a bank transfer, local bank transform, electronic payments, Skrill, Neteller, Perfect Money, AdvCash, and Bank Cards.
• Economic calendar.
• Regulated by the CySEC and IFSC in Belize.

Why do we like RoboForex for CFD trading?

• Variability in the types of CFDs you can trade energy, metals, stocks,
• Low spreads starting at 0 pips.
• Generous bonuses.

Pros:

• Compensation Fund of up to 200,000 euros per case when a member refuses to adhere to judgment from the Financial Commission, which is a third-party commission for dispute resolution and additional client protection.
• Up to 2.5 million euros in Civil Liability Insurance coverage for risks such as omissions, fraud, errors, negligence, etc.

Cons:

• It doesn’t work in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, 17 other countries, and other restricted countries.

Commissions, Spreads, and Fees: Spreads of between 0.1 and 202.9 pips on average for all assets. 0% commission except for US Futures for ECN, Prime, and ECN Affiliate accounts (between 10/mio and 60/mio).

Swaps of between -17 and 9.5 (-20% for crypto).

Website: RoboForex

#5) eToro

Best for social and copy trading.

eToro is a FinCEN, FCA, FINRA, Seychelles, ASIC, and CySEC-licensed multi-investment platform best known for its tried and tested and expansive (30 million traders) social/copy trading platform that allows users to easily copy their trades from an expert or other traders.

It is available for both CFD and non-CFD products. Popular Investors are paid (a 2% management fee from those following their trades) to share their investment knowledge and strategies via their profiles. With social trading, traders can publish a profile and strategies, and even discuss markets.

For CFD investment, eToro offers currencies CFDs, commodities CFDs, indices CFDs, stocks CFDs, and crypto assets CFDs.

Year Established: 2007
Headquarters and Other Locations: Cyprus, the United Kingdom; Tel Aviv, Israel; U.S.; Australia; and two other office locations. Available in all other countries except 133 of them.

Features:

• Smart Portfolios: copy topic/geographical/economic sector-themed investment baskets if you are a beginner and/or when you do not have time to research markets or craft your strategies
• Trading charts.
• Trading academy. Courses, webinars, etc.
• Insolvency covers U.K. investors for a maximum of 50,000 British pounds through the FCA’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
• Minimum deposit: $50in many countries ($10 in the US, $10,000 in Israel, $1,000/$200 in some countries). The first deposit is $50 in U.S. and U.K. and at least $500 if through bank transfer.
• No conversion fees are charged when depositing or withdrawing in USD. Otherwise, fees apply. $5 withdrawal charge on all withdrawals.
• Up to 1:10 leverage for CFD traders.
• Demo trading.

Why do we recommend eToro as one of the best CFD brokers?

• Expansive social and copy trading platforms consisting of over 30 million traders.
• Insolvency coverage.

Pros:

• Quite popular for investing. Available in 140 countries and used by 20 million+ users.
• eToro Money cash management service is a plus.
• Crypto transfers from the platform are possible.

Cons:

• It is not available in some states in the US – New York, Nevada, Minnesota, and Hawaii. Overall, it is not available in0 133 countries.
• Limited customer service.

Commissions, Spreads, and Fees: Between 1 and 3 pips for forex CFDs; 2 to 130000 pips for commodities; 0.7 points to 10 points for indices; 0.15% for stocks; ETF CFDs (2 cents per unit for US stocks and ETFs priced at $3 or less). 1% for crypto (0.1% conversion).

Overnight fees for CFDs also vary per asset (the highest is -$0.74/night for CFDs on Indices). Overnight fees of between $0.00002 and $ -0.013 for forex; $-3.3 and $0 for commodities; $-8.10 to $2 for indices; 2.9% short and 6.4% + benchmark on stocks and ETFs; $-14 to $ -0.00001 for crypto.

Zero commission is charged on stocks and ETFs. A $10 inactivity fee is charged after 12 months of inactivity. 1% buy and 1% sell fees for crypto are charged.

Website: eToro

#6) IG

Best for secure trading with a long-standing track record. Huge variations in the types of CFDs to trade.

IG Group is a top-tier U.K. regulated broker that offers, among other things, compensation to clients in case of insolvency by the company and is among CFD brokers with a long-standing track record since its founding in 1974.

The company provides a total of around 19,000 markets across shares, forex, indices, commodities, and other instruments. It also offers CFD spread betting for U.K. and Irish clients.

The company offers thousands of CFDs on forex, shares, indices, and crypto. and commodities. Get access to 18,000+ CFD markets and limit and stop order types to cap potential losses.

Year Established: 1974
Headquarters and Other Locations: London, U.K., and IG also offer services in 20 countries spread across different continents.

Features:

• Free withdrawal and deposit commission. Fees are charged by third parties through which you deposit or withdraw.
• Demo account.
• Free trading education through IG Academy, including content in interactive forms. This includes webinars, blog materials, and trading courses. Analysts’ insights are also available.
• There is no minimum balance for CFD accounts.
• Negative balance protection in addition to other methods (limit orders, guaranteed stops, stop losses order types) of protecting your account from margin trading-related losses. With negative balance protection, negative balances are brought to zero at no cost to the trader.
• Types of trading tools supported – in-house and third-party trading tools – MT4 supported. Works on iOS, Android, iPad, Mac, and web browsers. With MT4 Multiterminal, you can monitor multiple accounts.
• Inactivity fee of $12 per month after 2 years of inactivity.
• Regulations by the Financial Conduct Authority and ASIC.
• Trading Central indicators – It offers analyst perspectives, adaptive candlesticks, and adaptive divergence convergence.

Why do we recommend IG for CFD trading?

• Secure trading with a long-standing track record since starting in 1974.
• There is huge variability in the type of CFD assets one can trade.

Pros:

• No minimum deposit.
• A large number of assets and trading instruments beat most CFD brokers in terms of this.
• Multiple industry awards, e.g., having the best-spread betting and CFD education tools in 2019.

Cons:

• Negative ratings and court suits by former clients.
• High commission on CFD and stock trading.
• Not available in the U.S., Belgium, France, India, Poland, and Zimbabwe.

Commissions, Spread, and Other Fees:

Spread: 0.6 pints for forex, 0.1 pints for indices, 0.1 pints for share CFDs, 0.3 points for commodities CFDs, and 1 point for crypto CFDs. The margin rate for forex is 0.5%, indices 0.5%, share CFDs 5%, commodities 0.7%, and crypto 10%.

Website: IG

#7) InteractiveBrokers

Best for trade research and analytics; API and others for hedge funds, developers, investment advisors, and introducing brokers.

IBKR offers shares CFDs, metals CFDs, and forex CFDs, which can be traded on a single platform alongside other asset classes available for trading on the platform.

It is one of the oldest CFD brokers around, having begun in 1977, and being regulated in eight tier-1 jurisdictions makes it a pretty safe platform to trade with for those who like to trust regulated platforms. But its CFD products are not available to U.S., Canadian, and Hong Kong clients.

It allows clients to trade shares CFDs, index CFDs, forex CFDs, and metal CFDs, among other types of CFDs. It offers good support for trading tools plus traders get over 127 indicators on trading charts and can trade right from within the charts.

Years Established: 1977
Headquarters and Other Locations: Greenwich, Connecticut Country, United States. Offices in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Hungary, India, China (Hong Kong and Shanghai), Japan, Singapore, and Australia.

Features:

• Trader Workstation, which supports trading of CFDs alongside other asset types – stocks, options, futures, forex, metals, and funds. FXTrader and IBKR Mobile platforms can also be utilized for trading CFDs.
• Exchange-quoted prices for underlying share assets – the company uses IB SmartRouting to determine prices for CFDs.
• 5% or 10% margins for index CFDs; shares CFDs margins are 20% as required by law; 3.33% margins for major forex currencies and 5% for non-major currencies. The company also applies other margins of between 3% and 10% above the regulatory required margins.
• Overnight financing rates of +/-1.5% for metal CFDs. Commission rates are 0.0005%-0.01% for metal CFDs.
• Negative equity protection.
• Positions may close if equity falls 50 percent below the initial margin.
• Choose to trade with other IBKR clients or liquidity-providing banks.
• Free trial.
• Trading APIs. Used by hedge funds, individuals, proprietary trading firms, introducing brokers, registered investment advisors, and developers.
• Earn an interest rate of 4.58% on your balances above $100,000 or equivalent. Additional rates of between 0% and 3% apply depending on the currency. You can also earn by lending your shares to IBKR through the Stock Yield Enhancement Program.
• Text and voice-based iBot tools for things like content search on the platform.
• Economic calendars also allow adding alerts and configuring to show only events in a given category.

Why are InteractiveBrokers recommended by us for CFD trading?

• One of the oldest CFD brokers around; also regulated in eight tier 1 jurisdictions and hence trusted by many.
• We like the fact that it also offers active trader discounts on fees/charges.
• The average spread is just 0.6 pips, although InteractiveBrokers does not apply the same straightforward pricing model for all the different products.
• Those looking for more advanced orders will find the platform helpful. These are included in the Basket order and include One Cancel for all types of orders, among others.
• It also offers one of the widest ranges of research and news services, with 220 services from 86 news and research providers. Market news from multiple news sources, blog articles from experts (Trader’s Insight blog), in-house forex market news and analysis, etc. are also available.

Cons:

• Though it supports multiple trading software and tools, people’s favorite MT4 is not supported.
• Not available for U.S. traders and a few other locations.

Commissions, Spreads, and Other Fees:

• Share CFDs: Commission of between 0.0027% and 0.17% per trade fee depending on location and monthly volume. Commissions on U.S. share CFDs range between $0.003 and $0.005 per trade depending on volume.
• Index CFDs: between 0.05% and 0.01% per trade.
• Forex CFDs: between 0.08 and 0.20 basis points (depending on monthly volume) multiplied by trade value.
• Metals CFDs: between 0.7 and 3.0 basis points (depending on monthly volume).

Benchmark margin rates on margin financing are 5.1%. An additional rate of between 0.5 to 5% applies depending on the currency.

The total margin rate in USD is 6.560%. Other subscription-based fees apply to market news and research, market data, enhanced network connections, account management, and advisor/broker fees. Advisor client billing, broker-client billing, etc.

Website: InteractiveBrokers

#8) City Index

Best for trade market scanning and risk management.

The City Index allows traders access to 12,000+ CFDs in the categories of indices, shares, commodities, and bond assets. The company is regulated in the U.S. by CFTC and the National Futures Association; Canada, the Cayman Islands, the U.K., Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Australia.

Clients can be compensated up to 85,000 pounds in case of insolvency, thanks to membership with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Years Established: 1983
Headquarters and Other Locations: London, England; U.S., Canada, Australia, Singapore, and the UK. Available in a total of 130 countries globally.

Features:

• Customer protection for accounts.
• $15 inactivity fee after 24 months of inactivity.
• There are no charges on deposits except for credit and debit cards which are charged 2%. Foreign currency deposits may incur some fees.
• No minimum deposit.
• Trading academy, trading education tools, news and analysis, market analysis, trading ideas, and market intelligence.
• Fixed and variable margins. Fixed doesn’t change even under volatile markets.
• Futures rollovers are subject to a 50% spread discount.
• Trade on the web, desktop, and mobile through MT4, Web Trader, and mobile app, and get access to TradeView tools, SMART Signals, economic calendar, risk management, and analytics.
• Demo trading is available for 12 weeks.

Why do we think City Index is one of the best CFD brokers?

• You get free access to SMART Signals that are charged on some broker platforms. SMART Signal is a tool that utilizes data from 36 global markets across 800+ price action patterns to generate trade opportunities that are then shown to traders on their dashboards. It is available on web platforms and mobile apps.
• We found that the City Index has a very clear pricing model.
• There are a range of risk reduction tools on top of risk management orders. These include Knock Options and Guaranteed Stop Loss Orders (GSLOs).
• As part of StoneX, the company has over 100 years of industry operating expertise.

Pros:

• A long-standing track record of 100 years+ as part of StoneX.
• 26 Industry Awards.
• Over 12,000 CFDs are available for trading.
• Low spread on some CFDs.
• No commissions on CFDs except on stock CFDs.

Cons:

• High stock CFD fees on some CFDs.
• No smaller lots are available beyond the standard-size lots.

Commissions, Spreads, and Other Fees:

• Share CFDs: Spreads for shares CFDs range from 0.3 points to 2 points (depending on the share involved), and the margin (money needed to open a position in that market) is 5%; commission for shares CFDs is between 0.08%/SGD and 1.5 CPS/USD 8 and margin is 10%.
• Forex CFDs: The typical spread is between 0.8 points and 1.7 points (depending on the instrument in question) with a 5% margin.
• Commodities CFDs: Spreads are between 0.06 and 18 points depending on the instrument (margin is 20%).
• Metal CFDs: Minimum spread between 0.5 and 2.5 points depending on the instrument (margin is 20%).

Commissions are free for all CFDs except for shares CFDs. The commission for shares CFDs ranges from 0.08% to 0.15%. Overnight fees depend on location. The fees are 2.5% +/- SONIA, SOFR, CSTR, and SORA.

Other small charges include borrowing costs when you short-share CFDs, inactivity fees, stop loss order trigger charges, currency conversion charges, dividend adjustment costs, etc.

Website: CityIndex

#9) Plus500

Best for free rollovers for trade positions: insurance and fund protection

Plus500 provides CFDs markets for shares, cryptocurrencies, commodities, forex pairs, ETFs, and indices. In addition to ordinary standard accounts, the company, whose CFDs are available for trading in the United States, has a premium account option that comes with a client manager, expert analyses emails, external trading webinars, and other features.

The latter is invitation-only and available for premium traders.

Years Established: 1983
Headquarters and Other Locations: London, U.K. It is also available in Europe and Asia.

Features:

• Extra risk management tools beyond ordinary risk management order types – Close at Profit (Stop Limit), Guaranteed Stop, and Trailing Stop.
• Trading education at the Academy. Comprise of eBooks, videos, market insight articles, and alerts (email, SMS, push notifications).
• Regulated by FCA in the UK, CySEC in Cyprus, FSCA in South Africa, FMA in New Zealand, MAS in Singapore, Israel, FSA in Seychelles, EFSRA in Estonia, and DFSA in Dubai.
• 1:5 leverage on crypto CFDs; 1:150 leverage on index CFDs; 1:300 leverage on forex pairs; 1:50 leverage on commodities CFDs; 1:20 leverage on shares CFDs (CFDs on US top shares available); 1:5 leverage on options CFDs; 1:100 leverage on ETF CFDs.
• 0 fees for deposits excluding third-party fees such as credit cards.
• Minimum deposit: $100. $500 with a wire transfer. There are no deposit fees for the minimums or below. Otherwise, you pay some fee. There are no charges on withdrawals unless it is less than $50 for eWallets and $100 for other methods.
• A demo account is provided.

Why do we like Plus500 for CFD trading?

• Plus500 offers multiple ways to protect client funds.
• In addition to FCA regulations and ICF insurance, it does not hedge or invest with customer funds, does invest client money in hedging partners, and has no exposure to corporate or sovereign debt.
• Multiple CFD assets and instruments. It specializes in CFDs.

Pros:

• Zero fees when rolling positions.
• Demo accounts have no time limit. Depending on the user.
• Good range of tradable CFDs. Over 2000 instruments are available for trading.
• Negative balance protection.
• ICF extra protection provides for the protection of up to £85.000 for UK traders in case something happens to their money. There are also segregated bank accounts in which deposits are remitted in line with FCA guidelines.
• No commissions on CFDs.

Cons:

• Scalping, hedging, and algo-trading are not allowed. No trading APIs are supported.
• Limited charting and trading tools.

Commissions, Spreads, and Other Fees: Spreads: 0.8 to 1.5 on forex CFDs; 0.04 to 0.29 on the metal CFDs; 0.7 to 2.0 points on indices CFDs, from 2 pips on options CFDs; from 20 pips on crypto CFDs (1.25 to 182.92); 0.20 on ETFs CFDs.

Other fees include currency conversion (up to 0.7%), inactivity fees – $10 monthly fee after the third month of inactivity; and deposit and withdrawal fees.

Website: Plus500

#10) CMC Markets

Best for in-depth trade analytics, best execution, and social trading.

CMC Markets does not treat CFDs as a side product that they offer or in other words, is a specialist in them. With it, you can trade 12,000+ CFDs on forex (10,000+ instruments), indices, cryptocurrencies, commodities, shares, and treasuries. Unlike some CFD brokers on this list, it also provides 100% automated executions.

It provides detailed analysis tools for trades. You can also use the Chart Forum to connect with analysts and other traders and discuss, share, and instantly copy chart analyses on the web-based platform.

Years Established: 1989
Headquarters and Other Locations: London, U.K., Shanghai, China; offices in Sydney, Singapore, Toronto, and across Europe. Available globally except in a few countries including the U.S.

Features:

• Demo accounts.
• GSLOs order types, limit and stop entry orders, partial order closures, trailing stop orders, take-profit orders, boundary orders, price ladder trading, entering long and short orders simultaneously, etc. Also available for order execution are auto close-outs when the revaluation amount falls below the close-out level; last trade-in – first out; largest position loss first; largest position margin first.
• Detailed charting tools also trade within the charts.
• Trade unrealized profits by opening orders with it.
• 50% spread discount on forward positions.
• Trade order execution alerts.
• News and daily market analyses. Quantitative research reports, market calendar, CMC TV with expert videos,
• Web and mobile apps: MT4. Mobile apps offer charting with 40 technical indicators and drawing tools.
• Price projection tool for both long and short positions. Client sentiment tools let you see how many clients are on a given position value; a pattern recognition scanner alerts you of the emergence and breakout of popular chart patterns so you get notified of possible trading opportunities.
• Customize layout design to five different trading layouts.
• Live chat customer service.
• FCA regulated and segregated funds, LSE listed. Also regulated by ASIC, IIROC (Canada), MAS (Singapore), and BaFin (Berlin).

What makes CMC Markets one of our favorites for CFD trading?

• Advanced charting features and functionality. Provides over 115 technical indicators and drawing tools, 70 chart patterns, and 12 chart types.
• Advanced order execution and order types (click trading, the price ladder, simultaneous long and short, boundary orders, guaranteed stops).
• 100% automated trading support.
• Innovation: Chart Forum for social trading; client sentiment tool; pattern recognition scanner.

Pros:

• High leverage on pro accounts 1:500. Retail leverage is between 30x and 400x depending on the instrument to be traded.
• High trust score.
• Low spreads starting at 0.3 points.
• Long-standing performance since 1989 and regulated in five tier-1 jurisdictions.

Cons:

• Does not allow traders in the US to open and operate accounts.
• We found high stock CFD fees were higher.

Commissions, Spreads, and Other Fees: Spreads of between 1.5 and 4 on treasury bonds; between 0.3 and 14.90 for commodities CFDs, between 0.5 and 12 for Index CFDs; and between 0.7 and 0.9 for forex CFDs. country-based commissions of 0.10% ($0.02 for the US).

Other costs include guaranteed stop-loss order fees, roll-over costs, subscription-based market data fees, and an inactivity fee of £10 (or equivalent) after one year of inactivity. It also charges a currency conversion rate of mid-range foreign exchange cash products for the currency pair +/- 0.5%.

Website: CMC Markets

#11) AvaTrade

Best for social and copy trading as well as trade risk reduction innovation.

AvaTrade is a market maker broker that offers ETF CFDs, indices CFDs, crypto CFDs, stocks CFDs, and bonds and treasuries CFD markets. It brings substantial innovation to the market with AvaSocial, a copy trading platform, and the AvaProtect trade risk management tool.

Years Established: 2006
Headquarters and Other Locations: Dublin, Ireland; Regulated in Ireland, Australia, Japan, South Africa, Abu Dhabi, British Virgin Islands, and Israel, and available globally except in 6 countries (see below). The platform avails of over 1,250 financial instruments.

Features:

• MT4/5, WebTrader, AvaTradeGO mobile app, AvaOptions mainly for options, DupliTrade, ZuluTrade, and cTrader.
• Available on 6 continents.
• Automated trading – Zulutrade and Duplitrade on the AvaSocial app.
• Demo trading.
• AvaSocial apps and trading – connect with your trading peers and automate trades. Also, copy the trades of the very best traders.
• Tutorials and trading education tools.
• AvaProtect risk management tool. Fee-based coverage for trade losses is up to one million dollars over a chosen time frame.
• Trading Central and Guardian Angel add-ons.
• $100 minimum deposit. There are no fees on deposits and withdrawals except for third-party fees.
• Up to 400x leverage on forex; 10x on stock CFDs; up to 200x for commodities; 1 to 2x for FXOptions; up to 25x on crypto; up to 200x on indices.

Why is CMC Markets our recommendation for CFD trading?

• Strong innovations in in-house trading tools – AvaSocial for social and copy trading, AvaProtect, etc. Also supports traders’ favorites like MT4 and 5.
• Comparatively high leverage for all CFD products.

Pros:

• High leverage for forex CFDs compared to many brokers.
• Low CFD fees.

Cons:

• Base currencies are limited to only 5.
• High inactivity fees over 3 months of inactivity make it more suitable for regular traders.
• Does not accept U.S., New Zealand, Syria, Iran, Cuba, and Belgium customers.

Commissions, Spreads, and Other Fees:

Spreads of 0.9 to 90 points for Forex CFDs (margin is between 0.25% to 2%); 0.13% to 0.16% spreads for stocks (margin is 10%); $0.0015 over the market to $6 over the market for commodities (0.5% – 3% margins); zero and 2.8 for FXOptions (1% to 2% margins); 0.15% to 2% over-market for crypto (margin is between 4% to 20%); 0.03 to 10 over the market (margins between 0.5% to 10%) for indices.

Overnight fees also apply; an inactivity fee of $50 for three months of inactivity and; a $100 annual administration fee.

Website: AvaTrade

#12) Pepperstone

Best for automated trading with multiple smart trading app options.

Pepperstone supports the trading of shares CFDs, forex CFDs, commodity CFDs, ETF CFDs, and commodity CFDs. I feel one of its major strengths is the trading tools provided, with support for algorithmic and auto trading, VPS, and trading APIs.

Years Established: 2010
Headquarters and Other Locations: Collins Street in Melbourne, Australia; Dubai, UAE; Nairobi, Kenya; London, UK; Germany; and Cyprus.

Features:

• Trading tools: MT5, code-free automation Capitalise.ai, cTrade Automate for automated trading, market scanner called Autochartist (highlight currency pairs, data intervals, and technical indicators that signify key market events and remove market noise), and algorithmic trading tools. Pepperstone also provides Smart Trader tools (Pepperstone Pro clients) for MetaTrader 4 and 5 and the Figaro package. The latter provides 28 smart trading apps, including expert advisors and indicators.
• The platform also provides trading APIs.
• VPS hosting for those who want to run automated algorithmic strategies.
• Social trading (via Myfxbook, MetaTrader Signals, and DupliTrade) including copy trading.
• Higher leverage of up to 500x with pro accounts. Referrals and discounted commissions are also refundable daily, with advanced trading tools, VPS, VIP events such as workshops, seminars, dining experiences, and sporting events, and a dedicated Relationship Manager for pro accounts.
• Up to 400x leverage on forex pairs.
• Market analysis, the weekly debate of financial markets, trading education, economic calendar, trading charts, market news, and webinars. Market data is also provided for instance on the cTrader FIX API.
• Deposits in segregated bank accounts.
• Regulations by ASIC, SCB, CMA, CySEC, FCA, BaFin, and DFSA.
• Negative balance protection.
• Standard and Razor (for professional traders) account types.

Why do we recommend Pepperstone for CFD trading?

• Advanced and diverse trading tools including automation and trade customization tools, APIs, and social trading.
• Excellent offers on pro accounts.
• Investor protection for UK resident customers. We have limited protection for non-EU customers.
• Leverages are relatively high for all CFD products, for instance up to 400x for retail and 500x for pro accounts.

Pros:

• Industry awards from Investment Trends, Deloitte and Compare Forex Brokers.
• Strong support for trading tools.
• Comparatively low spreads.

Cons:

• Not much is offered on risk protections e.g., guaranteed stop loss is not for every trader’s account. Stop-loss orders are available at the bid price.

Commissions, spreads, and other fees: Spreads are 0.0001 pips for major FX currencies, and between 0.001 and 0.01 pips for minor FX pairs, crosses, and exotics. Between 0.0001 and 0.1 pips for commodity CFDs,0.01 and 0.1 pips for indices CFDs, 0.0001 to 0.1 pips for currency indices CFDs,

Commissions are charged only on Razor accounts; $3.50 or £2.25 per 1 standard FX lot per side on MT4/5, $3.00 per 1 standard FX lot per side on cTrader and TradingView. Commissions per side for share CFDs is 0.02 USD per share for U.S. shares and ETF CFDs, and between 0.02 and 0.1% for other countries share CFDs. Commission on ETF CFDs is $0.02 per share, per trade.

Other charges include swap rates; market data fees on a subscription basis; etc.

Website: PepperStone

CFD Trading FAQs

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored the CFD brokers trading platforms. While over 65%+ CFD clients lose money (the majority of them are in the leveraged category where risk is highest), there are multiple ways you can cut down the loss and increase profiting chances. One of those is lowering broker fees, spreads, and commissions.

The most important factor is knowing how to trade (and mastering skills through demo trading and trading education).

The second is understanding which platform and selecting tools and platforms allow for better market scanning, support better trade analytics, provide market insights and analytics, have copy trading, and support more risk reduction strategies than just the risk reduction order types.

We have provided a list of the best CFD Brokers that comprise XTB and XM which are two of our favorites for supporting rich analytic and trading tools, popularity as CFD brokers, and low spreads. Roboforex also offers low spreads, rebates, bonuses, and loyalty programs; XM, Forex.com, eToro, AvaTrade, and Pepperstone are great for social trading.

Roboforex, IG Group, and City Index provide a wild selection of CFD instruments (12,000+, 18,000+, 12,000+ respectively); InteractiveBrokers if you need better trade analytics and broker tools; City Index for auto trading; Plus500 for low CFD fees and free overnight fees; and CMC Markets for better execution and trade analytics.

Research Process:

• CFD Brokers Shortlisted for Review: 30
• Total CFD Brokers Reviewed: 12
• Time Spent in the CFD Brokers Review: 2 days