Trusted Top 11 Forex Brokers in Australia for 2024

The tutorial explores the Australian FX market and suggests the Top Forex Trading Platforms in Australia. Pick the best Forex Brokers in Australia by comparing their fees and features:

The Australian dollar is the six most traded currency with the AUD/USD being also the six most traded pair in the global FX markets.

Most of the Australian Dollar FX turnover comes from the major trading centers and around 90% of the turnover occurs outside Australia. The Australian FX market is the 11^th largest in the world.

This tutorial discusses the FX market situation in Australia and recommends the top FX brokers based on a variety of factors including fees, features, market research, leverage/margins, hedging availability, and risk management strategies such as guaranteed stop losses, and trading tools integrated and supported.

Top Forex Trading Platforms in Australia

Australia Forex Market

The Australian FX market turnover is up by 26% in the last three years, although the notional size of the OTC derivatives market was down by 6% during the same period. In Australia, the most traded currency is USD at 90%.

The Australian Dollar is no longer being traded by many to indirectly gain exposure to developments in China which has happened in the past. Most traders and investors are now shifting to buy/trade the renminbi directly for this purpose as the latter has surpassed the AUD by FX turnover in the global FX market.

By type of Dealer and Broker:

The Australian FX market is dominated by trading between reporting dealers. There is less activity between dealers and non-reporting banks because of the greater concentration of the banking sector. Hedge funds and proprietary trading firms form a smaller section of Australian forex brokers.

Short-dated FX swaps types of trades comprise the largest portion of trades in the Australian market. Some Australian forex brokers undertake longer-dated FX swaps outside the Australian markets. The latter type can also hedge trades.

The direct execution method was dominant mainly because of the domination of the related party types of trades. Voice execution on Forex Brokers Australia platforms increased significantly while the electronic execution method dropped significantly during the study period.

The single-currency interest rate derivatives turnover increased by 16% over the three years to April 2022 driven by turnover of interest rate swaps, which account for almost all of the OTC interest rate derivative turnover in Australia.

USD is no longer the second most traded single currency for interest rate derivatives in the Australian market as the market has shifted more from the US dollar-denominated FRAs to more New Zealand dollar-denominated instruments.

The Australian OTC derivatives market is twice as large as it was a decade ago, despite the decrease in notional size in the last three years. The market value of of OTC derivatives was up reaching 5% of the global derivatives gross market values. The gross market value of FX OTC derivatives in the Australian FX market also saw a rise.

How to Trade Forex in Australia & Regulations

Australian forex brokers allow you to trade forex in raw FX pairs, swaps, and derivatives. The forex markets are divided into three categories: Spot forex, where currencies are immediately exchanged in their raw forms.

This is much of the forex market. The forward forex market involves an agreement between the buyer and seller to exchange currencies at an agreed-upon price at a set date in the future.

The actual exchange of currencies does not occur, just the value. The futures forex market is a forward market in which there is an agreed price and an agreed date to exchange the currencies. Hedging involves the use of forward and future markets.

Most forex trading brokers allow the four strategies of trading forex: Scalping, Day trading, Swing trading, and Position trading. Hedging is also mostly allowed within certain limits for placing opposing positions simultaneously on a single pair.

Best Time to Trade Forex in Australia

The forex market in Australia does not have any set time and can operate 24 hours a day. Normal trading starts at 5.00 am (Sydney time) on Monday and closes at 5.00 pm (New York time) on Friday.

The best time to trade forex in Australia is just like it is for other markets when the market is most active because traders get the narrowest spreads and there is the best chance of executing trades at desired levels.

The best times to trade forex in Australia are as below:

• 23:00 to 03:00 (AEST) when both New York and London exchanges are open. This is the most important session because the two centers account for half of all forex trades.
• 10:00 to 17:00 (AEST) when both Tokyo and Sydney exchanges are open.
• 18:00 to 19:00 (AEST) when both Tokyo and London exchanges are open.
• It may also depend on which currency pair you want to trade. Most liquidity for each pair is witnessed when the two sessions for the pair overlap if markets in both locations are open at the same time. For instance, GBP/USD experiences a higher trading volume when London and New York sessions are open at the same time.

By considering the average pip movement of the major currencies, the London session has the most movement.

It is important to put into place risk management strategies when trading volumes are highest because volatility is the highest. Note that higher transaction costs may result from low liquidity witnessed during holidays. On Christmas Day, Boxing Day, or Australia Day, the trading volumes of the Australian dollar experience a drop.

Who is this tutorial for?

This research is for both beginner and advanced traders in Australia who are seeking the top forex broker or want to compare and determine the best forex brokers in Australia based on trading fees, features, platforms, tools, leverage, research, and analytics. It is for anyone who wants to understand FX markets and how they work in Australia.

List of the Best Forex Brokers in Australia

Here is a popular list of Australian forex trading platforms:

1. AvaTrade
2. IC Markets
3. eToro
4. IG Forex
5. Trade Nation
6. City Index
7. Pepperstone
8. Plus500
9. FXTM
10. FP Markets
11. Eightcap

Comparing the Top Australian Forex Brokers

Detailed reviews:

#1) AvaTrade

Best for integrated third-party research, analytics, and trading signals. Trade protections are one of the best too.

AvaTrade, which is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, allows Australian clients to trade 55 forex pairs on iOS and Android mobile as well as on their web applications, MT4, MT5, and DupliTrade platforms.

The platform, which also allows hedging trades and does not restrict short selling and scalping types of trading, is used by over 400,000 clients globally and allows customers to also trade CFDs of stocks, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies (a total of 1250+ instruments).

AvaTrade platform is feature-rich enabling clients to trade forex with some of the best trade customization options, automated trading strategies, copy trading, and one of the industry’s best analytics tools. For this reason, many reviewers rank it as the best forex trading platform in Australia.

How to trade forex in Australia with AvaTrade:

Features:

• Stop losses are not guaranteed. Traders can mitigate risks through their strategies, as well as using AvaTrade’s call-and-put options, and AvaProtect to hedge their trades. MT4 can also be used for hedging. Guaranteed negative balance protection is available.
• Investor protection is €20k for EU clients and $0 for others. Negative balance protection is also available.
• Proprietary trading apps – iOS and Android-based AvaTradeGO app, AvaOptions (forex options platform on desktop and mobile which requires a deposit of at least $1,000), and AvaSocial for social trading. AvaProtect risk management tool is used to assist clients in recovering losses from losing trades and offers protection for losses of up to $1M for a small fee.
• 93 indicators, 13 drawing tools, 10 ten time frames, and three chart types. 
• Trading education, e-books, tutorials including videos and articles, market news, daily in-house research and market analytic content, access to Trading Central research tools, etc. Also integrates with Market Buzz, Analyst Views, and Featured Ideas tools for market research provisions.
• Copy Trading via DupliTrade platform. Mirror trading actions of expert traders to your account.
• Trading Central automated analyses add-on. Zulu Trade automated and social trading on MT4. Also, protect your account if and when the trades of the trader being copied do not do well. Over 10,000 traders to potentially follow. Autochartist also supported.
• Live notifications on the forex trading platform Australia.
• Minimum trade size starts from 0.01 per lot
• Trading performance and tracking of behavior via analytics (track volumes traded, active users, accounts, spread, commissions, withdrawals, chargebacks, etc).
• Brokers, forex affiliate programs, Call Centers, Trading Academies, Broker Affiliates, and Service Providers can join partnership earning programs including Cost Per Acquisition (fixed payment for every client referred), revenue sharing program, dynamic CPA, and master affiliate programs where clients are paid a percentage of client traffic and trading performance.

Specifications:

Why we selected AvaTrade:

AvaTrade offers diverse and great options when it comes to trading tools (including those for automated trading, social trading, automated charting, market news delivery, and expert market analyses) and it backs its platform with protection against trade losses through the AvaProtect even though its access is limited.

Pros:

• Free deposit and withdrawals.
• Multiple third-party trading tools supported giving clients good options.
• Zero commissions on trades.
• Versatile account types with options for individuals and corporate traders.

Cons:

• No guaranteed stop orders. The same applies to trailing stop-loss orders. Order is executed at the next available price if there is a sharp market move and the instrument breaks through the client’s stop loss or trailing stop rate.

Trading Fees: 0.9 to 300 basis points depending on FX pairs. Most regular pairs are charged below 4 basis points. FX options spreads range from 0.0005 to 2.8 basis points. The margin for the options is 1% to 5%.

Other Charges/Costs: Overnight fees, inactivity fees ($50 after 3 months of inactivity), $100 administration fee after 12 months of inactivity, margin costs, etc.

#2) IC Markets

Best for pro traders given vast options and offers to this class of traders.

IC Markets boasts having 180,000+ active clients worldwide and has managed a total volume of $1.39 trillion trading volume as of June 2023. The order matching engine manages over 500,000 orders per day with two-thirds coming from automated trading systems according to information posted by the company.

You expect deep liquidity with its mix of 25 different liquidity providers. It allows diversification to over 2,200 Aussie shares in addition to trading forex and other types of CFDs.

How to trade forex in Australia with IC Markets:

Features:

• Hedging is allowed. Stop loss is guaranteed.
• Automated trading. Free trading VPS is available when you trade 15 lots/month or more.
• Through ZuluTrade, which is supported on the platform, you can do social and copy trading by choosing to copy trades from over 100,000 talented ZULU Traders from 192 countries. Monitor and protect an account if and when trades copied are doing badly. Before going live, it’s important to test strategies, evaluate signal rankings from other traders, and engage in demo trading.
• Equinix NY4 data center in New York.
• Support for proprietary Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web browser apps. Also supports third-party trading tools, namely WebTrader, ZuluTrade, MT4, MT5, and CTrader are supported.
• Place orders even between the spreads because there is no minimum order distance and a freeze level of 0. It means stop-loss orders can be placed at any level.
• Deposit methods: Credit/debit card, Skrill, PayPal, wire transfer, Neteller, Rapipay, Klarna, Vietnamese Internet Banking, Bpay, Broker to Broker, Thai Internet Banking, FasaPay, Bpay, and broker-to-broker transfer, deposits. Fund the account in 10 different base currencies (AUD, USD, JPY, EUR, NZD, SGD, GBP, CAD, HKD, and CHF) including instant deposits depending on the deposit method. Deposit is free.
• Trading hours: 24 hours for 5 days. 00:01 server time to 23:59 server time daily (23:57 on Friday).

Specifications:

Why we selected IC Markets forex platform:

IC Markets provides some of the lowest spreads in the market. It offers multiple methods for funding the account, and the leverage is up to 1000 for pro account holders. As a pro or regular trader, you also get many other free offers on meeting certain trading requirements.

Pros:

• Free deposits and withdrawals. No extra charges except the ones incurred by third parties e.g. banks through which you are depositing or withdrawing.
• No restrictions on trading.
• Support for diverse third-party platforms and trading tools.

Cons:

• No trading rebates or other bonuses are provided.

Trading Fees: Raw Spreads account, starting from 0 pips but the average is between 0.02 to 0.25 pips for majors, 0.38 to 0.86 pips for minors, and 0.9 to 138.98 pips for exotics. Standard accounts, 0.74 to 0.85 for majors (minimum is 1 0.6 pips), 1.3 to 2.98 for minors, and 1.85 to 139.98 pips for exotics.

Commission of $3.0 per lot per side on cTrader Raw Spread accounts, $3.5 per lot per side on Raw Spread ECN accounts, and zero commissions on standard accounts.

Other Charges/Costs: Margin costs, swaps, or overnight fees apply.

#3) eToro

Best for social trading.

eToro provides access to trade 3,000+ assets which you can diversify in addition to trading forex. It offers 60+ forex currencies and is well popular with its Popular Investor and copy trading programs which are available in Australia. Remember the platform is not accessible in over 100 countries globally.

Although the social copy trading platform allows anyone to copy trades for as low as $200 (the minimum deposit needed), becoming a Popular Investor whose trades can be copied requires an investment of at least $1,000 in account equity, and attracting $500 in customer assets.

Nevertheless, eToro is recommended for both beginner and expert traders with its range of in-house trading tools and analytics.

How to trade forex in Australia with eToro:

Features:

• Hedging is allowed for non-US traders. No guaranteed Stop Loss.
• eToro Trading Academy, research, news, analysis through eToro Plus, and daily market commentaries from experts. Its offering includes the Digest & Invest series, Market Bites podcast, and weekly videos and articles.
• 103 indicators, 50+ drawing tools, and 7 chart types.
• eToro CopyTrader and Popular Investor program with over 30 million investors from whom you can copy trades. Also, become a signal provider on the market and earn income.
• Exclusive access to market analytics, free assistance via WhatsApp chat, lower fees and other discounts, live webinars, VIP events, dedicated account managers, data-based Smart Portfolios, and tax reports. Also, there are discounted tax returns, Delta Pro Investment Tracker, weekly market analysis emails, market insights, news, and market data through eToro Club membership. The latter requires equity of from $5,000 for Silver, $10,000 for Gold, $25,000 for Platinum, $50,000 Platinum+, and $250,000 for Diamond members. All members also have access to Trading Central Research & Analysis platform as well as The Wall Street Journal Subscription.
• 2%, 2.4%, 5%, and 5.3% interest on balance for Silver, Gold, Platinum, Platinum+, and Diamond. The latter two have access to leading digital financial publications while Diamond will have access to premium access to leading digital financial publications.
• Deposit methods include credit/debit cards, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, Rapid Transfer, Ideal, Klarna, Bank Transfer, Online Banking Trustly in EU, Przelewy 24, etc. You can also receive from and transfer money within an eToro Money account.
• Insurance covering up to 1 million euros or AUD. Free for Platinum + and Diamond Club members. £85k to UK, €20k to EU, $500k (cash up to $250k) to US clients.
• Marketing hours are Monday 01:05 to Saturday 00:30 for most hours.

Specifications:

Why we choose eToro:

eToro Forex Brokers in Australia have an outstanding social copy trading platform (also available to all other clients globally) which is great for starters and advanced traders alike. The platform is used by over 30 million traders. It also offers exclusive trading rewards and fee bonuses to eToro Club members.

Pros:

• Clarity and no complications on fees – 1% for each crypto trade.
• Great trading fee rebates of up to zero fees depending on eToro Club membership and monthly trading volume tier you are in.
• Long-term investment instruments are also available through customized or thematic eToro Smart Portfolios (including partner investment portfolios).
• The app is easy to use including for beginner traders, plus with just one application, eToro does not leave customers confused about which one to use.

Cons:

• Currency conversion fee when you deposit AUS dollar currency or other currency that is not USD. A withdrawal fee of $5 per transaction on top of third-party fees accrued to banks and credit/debit card issuers.
• No support for third-party platforms such as MT4, MT5, etc.
• eToro leverage is also limited to 1:30.

Trading fees: The average spread is 1 pip. The fee or commission is built into the spreads.

Other Charges/Costs: Overnight fees, margin trading costs, inactivity fees ($10/month after 12 months of inactivity), currency conversion (150 points), $5 bank wire fees, $5 withdrawal fees, copy trading fees, etc. Deposits are free.

Silver, Gold, Platinum, Platinum+, and Diamond have exchange fee discounts of 25%, 50%, and 100% respectively.

#4) IG Forex

Best for OTC and DMA accounts.

IG Forex provides access to 17,000+ markets on CFDs including 80 forex pairs, indices, commodities, shares, and cryptocurrencies, which is one of the most diversified markets on any forex broker platform. It has over 300,000 clients globally and with 48 years of operation, it is certainly one of the most trusted forex brokers out here.

Regarding forex trading, all clients can do OTC contract trading and DMA (direct trading) in lots. The former does not charge any commissions but raw spreads while the latter charges a commission starting from $10 per $1 million.

How to trade forex in Australia with IG Forex:

Features:

• Hedging is allowed. Guaranteed stop-loss order available.
• Proprietary web and mobile apps. Also supports third-party apps namely MT4, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer, VPS terminals, and APIs.
• Automate your trading and technical analysis using the ProRealTime web-based charting package. Over 100 indicators, ability to build own trading algorithms, place orders according to trend lines instead of just on price movements, etc.
• Traders can control risks using stop-losses and guaranteed stops which are available on forex CFDs and not on DMA. There also is negative balance protection. There also are margin calls and price alerts to help when you need to close trades or when the balance is running low due to threats for a position closure.
• Trading education via IG Academy.
• Online trading analytics tool. Personalized data about your return rate, win rate, profit/loss ratio, average hold time for winning and losing trades, best market, and worst market.
• Premium services such as exclusive insights from over 50 expert analysts make it one of the best forex brokers in Australia among pro traders. Pro traders also get expert trading expertise via phone and through a dedicated account manager, educational seminars and workshops, priority access to IG product and platform launches, and access to events and networking opportunities.

Specifications:

Why we selected IG Forex broker:

IG gives trading discounts so-called rebates for active traders and traders get high-quality analytics tools. There also are client manager or support desk for pro clients, free VPS, free reimbursement of third-party platform subscription fees, and free wire transfer.

Pros:

• Support for automated charting and trading via the ProRealTime platform. Comprise of trading tools such as ProRealTrend, ProScreener, and custom indicators, as well as algorithmic trading.
• Low forex-trading fees.
• Volume-based trading discounts.

Cons:

• Pro trader discounts and offers have higher trading volume requirements.

Trading Fees: Forex spreads range from 0.6 to 0.9 pips on major FX pairs. Minors, Australasian, Scandinavian, Exotic, and Emerging FX pairs are available at higher spreads sometimes over 1000 and above pips although the majority of all pairs are below 30 pips.

Other Charges/Costs: No withdrawal and deposit costs except third-party costs. 0.50% fee on withdrawal if the currency conversion fee if the currency being withdrawn does not match the account base currency.

Margin trading costs also apply. Overnight funding fee to keep cash CFD positions open (past 10 p.m. U.K. Time); losses due to slippage on stops (slippage on limits may also mean profit). Fees apply to optional services such as data/research info and price feed subscriptions. Account documentation fees may apply.

#5) Trade Nation

Best for main starters to intermediate traders.

Trade Nation began in 2014 but is led by a management team with a combined industry experience of over 200 years. The company has offices in Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and the Bahamas.

With the platform, 33+ Forex pairs availed for trading can be dealt with over MT4 and Trade Nation’s proprietary iOS, Android, and web-based trading applications. Not only can you trade forex but also indices, CFDs, bonds, stocks, and commodities.

How to trade forex in Australia with Trade Nation

Features:

• Hedging is allowed for non-professional traders, and traders can place long and short positions on the same instrument at the same time. Guaranteed stop loss orders are available.
• Deposit methods: Credit and debit cards, Bitcoin and other cryptos, FPX, Skrill, bank transfers, GrabPay, Ngan Luong, etc.
• Expert insights and trading signals (powered by Acuity), market reactions, real-time news, daily reports, trading guides, and tutorials.
• Use about 90 indicators, 36 drawing tools, and 12 watchlists.
• Copy trading through the TradeCopier platform. Also with leaderboards, forums that allow sharing and discussing of ideas, etc.
• Send money between your accounts.
• The minimum stake size is 0.1 (ZAR accounts have 1 as the minimum and Trade Nation Bahamas minimum is 0.5 pence).
• Fees are built into the spread.
• 85,000 pounds deposit protection through the FSCS.
• Fixed spread betting is available for forex. The other option is CFD trading with variable spreads.
• 3 base currencies namely USD, EUR, and GBP.

Specifications:

Why we selected TradeNation forex broker:

Trade Nation, in addition to charging average fees, is highly positively rated among customers with a trust score of 83/100. It also offers zero deposit minimum, zero deposit, and withdrawal fees aside from third-party fees paid to card issuers and banks.

Pros:

• No inactivity fees, no withdrawal fees, and the availability of no-commission accounts reduces the trading fees.
• Zero deposit minimum and a low withdrawal minimum.
• Signal provision service also is positively rated among traders.
• Royalty points can be used to reduce trading fees, and the traders automatically join in on registering (U.K. customers cannot). Bonuses and competitions are also available.

Cons:

• Limited variability in the number of trading platforms supported.
• Costly rollovers.
• Limited research and education content.

Trading Fees: Spreads range mainly between 0.6 pips to 1.4 pips (Average of up to 1 pip).

Cash rebates of up to 20% of trading costs though this requires depositing $10,000 and above to achieve the maximum rebate.

Other Charges/Costs: Margin trading costs, Free withdrawals (50 USD or equivalent is the withdrawal minimum), overnight financing or rollover, and extra cost due to slippage of prices.

#6) City Index

Best for brokerage and pro accounts; integrated third-party sentiment tools, and above-the-average analytics.

City index, which has a 40-year history of offering financial markets including CFDs, shares, indices, commodities, metals, and forex markets provides access to 84+ FX pairs for trading as part of the total 6,300+ markets. It has a customer base of over 1 million active clients globally which tells of its popularity.

Forex traders can open individual retail as well as institutional forex accounts and enjoy spreads as low as 0 pips on the raw spread account.

How to trade forex in Australia with City Index:

Features:

• Hedging is allowed and traders can close or add to existing positions in increments. Guaranteed stop-loss orders are available.
• Advanced charting: 80+ indicators, TradeView charting package, Trading Central technical analyses, and market data, and include Analyst View which provides traders with suggestions on entry points, stop losses, and limit order levels.
• AI-powered trading signals or SMART signals (including seeing how previously supplied signals are performing) [smart signals tool tracks 36 major markets to identify and inform traders if there is a previously successful historical pattern that is being repeated and their win rate].
• Gauge market sentiments all across the web. The Market Buzz tool scans blogs, articles, over 2,500 publications, and social media to identify relevant information to help traders gauge sentiments.
• Market research and analyst opinions from and by experts, market news, trading guides on forex and other assets, etc. Trading education via City Index Academy.
• Trader performance analytics on their account thus traders can know how they are performing and look for how to improve on it.
• Mobile trading. Also supports one-click trading.
• StoneX member which gives more benefits to City Index partners and institutional clients such as asset managers, hedge funds, brokers, banks, and other financial institutions. Also, affiliates earn up to $1,000 CPA.
• Knockout options for trading FX, indices, and commodities markets with limited risks. With knockout options, the price of an FX pair or other asset moves one-for-one with the underlying City Index price, and trade is closed when the price reaches the Knockout level.
• Guaranteed stop loss orders, stop loss orders, trailing stop orders, and limit orders are available for risk management.
• Step margins based on trade sizes.

Specifications:

Why we chose City Index forex broker:

With 40+ years of offering financial markets to clients, City Index has a high trust score and this is coupled with its outstanding research and analytics and trading idea generation/suggestion tools.

Pros:

• Smart signal utilizes 800+ price action patterns and hundreds of thousands of data points. You also get free access to the sentiment scanner tool.
• Multiple ways of managing risks including knockout options.
• Market 360, Trading Central, Reuters Insider, Trading View, MT4, and many other third-party tools are supported.

Cons:

• Only three base currencies namely EUR, USD, and GBP; and a relatively higher minimum deposit.

Trading Fees: Spreads start from 0.7 pips to around 1 pip for major currencies and up to 400 pips for exotics depending on which currency pair. Zero commission on spread betting and CFD FX markets.

5% to 20% step margins for spread bet stake size of between £0 to £500+ or CFD stake size of between 0 and 50,000+. Order aware margins on professional accounts.

Other Charges/Costs: Margin trading costs, financing, or overnight charges based on swap points for FX clients, an inactivity fee of  $15 per month after 24 hours of inactivity.

#7) Pepperstone

Best for both retail/regular and pro accounts.

Pepperstone financial markets are CFDs of forex, cryptos, indices, commodities, and shares. Founded in 2010 in Melbourne, with a client base of 400,000+ traders globally, and processing $9.2 billion of trades every day, the company has won multiple industry awards with the likes of Deloitte and Investment Trends.

With Pepperstone, you can access 100+ FX currency pairs out of a total of 1200+ markets.

Among its many strengths are adhering to industry regulators in seven jurisdictions, support of many third-party tools including the most liked MT4 and Trading View, and low spreads on the Raw account.

Features:

• Hedging is allowed. No guaranteed stop-loss orders.
• Third-party trading tools supported are ZuluTrade social trading platform, cTrader, MT4, MT5, TradingView, Capitalise.ai for code-free automation of trades and which is accessible by all traders, Smart Trader tools on MT4, cTrader Automate, Autochartist market scanner, APIs for connecting to third-party trading tools.
• Social and copy trading supported.
• 70+ charting indicators, 50+ charting or drawing tools, etc.
• Market analyses via different expertise platforms: Daily Fix with articles and news from the market, analysts’ views with daily market analyses and expert commentaries, economic event coverage, etc.
• Trading education, webinars, trading videos, and forex (and other assets) trading guides.
• Pro account for those wanting premium services. The account features higher leverage of up to 1:500 compared to retail’s 1:10 to 1:30 only, cash rebates on trading fees, referral programs where a customer can earn up to $5,000 per referral, dedicated relationship manager, credit facilities, custom trading sizes, etc.
• Investor protection is up to 85,000 pounds to UK clients, 20,000 euros to EU clients, and $0 to all other clients.
• 10 base currencies namely AUD, USD, JPY, GBP, EUR, CAD, CHF, NZD, SGD, and HKD.
• Demo account which is limited to one month of test trading.

Specifications:

Why we selected Pepperstone forex broker:

Pepperstone is one of the forex brokers based out of Australia and is most favorable for pro traders who can access better research tools, leverage, referral incomes, and trading rebates. Experienced traders will also find it helpful due to the support of various third-party trading tools.

Pros:

• Has one of the best support for third-party trading analytics and trade opportunity suggestion tools.
• Quite several research tools and analyst views/content are accessible for free when some broker platforms charge for it.

Cons:

• Trading fee rebates are not earned on retail accounts. A Pro trading account has to be opened which requires at least AUD 2.5 million of minimum net assets or notional value of AUD 50,000 or more in the last 2 years of trading leveraged assets, or gross income of AUD 250,000 for the last 2 years one has traded leveraged FX or CFDs.

Trading Fees: From 0.00 pips for majors, 0.1 pips for minors and crosses, 0.3 to 700 pips for exotics, and 6 to 600 pips for NDF pairs. 0.0 – 0.2 pips for Razor accounts and 1.0 – 1.2 pips for Standard accounts. Commissions on standard lots are 10% of a standard lot when you trade 0.1 of a lot and 1% when you trade 0.01 of a lot.

Other Charges/Costs: Funding and withdrawals, margin trading fees.

#8) Plus500

Best for retail accounts.

Plus500 is an Australian-based company that boasts 25 million registered traders globally across 50 countries. The FTSE 250 London Stock Exchange-listed company is also regulated in 8 jurisdictions. The company provides trading markets for 2,800+ markets among them 60+ FX pairs, indices, crypto, commodities, shares, options, ETFs, options, and others.

The company is regulated by six tier-1 regulators including the Australian Securities & Investment Commission ASIC, 3 tier-2 regulators, and 1 tier-4 regulator.

Plus500 won’t fulfill the desire of many looking for copy trading like most other platforms but it has replaced this with a platform that gives traders insights into what other traders are doing on the platform.

Features:

• Hedging is not allowed. Guaranteed stop-loss orders are available within certain distances (minimum and maximum distance) from the current rate (price).
• 110 indicators, over 21 drawing tools, and 13 chart types.
• Get trading insights — trading data, analyze trends, and see what other traders on the platform are doing. With +Insights, customers can understand the most popular instruments including the most viewed, most traded, most sold, most purchased, most profitable, and most loss-making. News and market insights articles, daily commentaries, social sentiments for currency pairs, as well as fundamental analyses content. Trading Central and FactSet market research tools. Dow Jones economic calendar.
• Trading educational materials through the Trading Academy. Trading guides are also provided.
• Risk management tools include Close at Profit or Stop Limit orders, Stop Loss or Close at Loss orders, Guaranteed stop loss orders, and Trailing stop orders.
• Invitation-only premium service package including a dedicated client manager, expert analyses of upcoming trading/economic events, which are delivered via emails; premium customer support, external trading webinars, etc.
• Alerts can be customized based on percentage changes within client sentiment data.
• Investor insurance of up to 85,000 pounds to U.K. clients, 20,000 euros to EU clients, and $0 to other clients.

Specifications:

Why we selected Plus500 forex trading:

Plus500 is popular among millions of traders who use it for trading. This may be due to a variety of reasons that include simplicity and ease-of-use as noted by other forex trading reviewers, integration of social sentiment features, and relatively low fees.

Pros:

• 13 base currencies for depositing and trading (USD, GBP, EUR, CHF, AUD, JPY, PLN, CZK, CAD, HUF, TRY, SEK, NOK, and SGD), which reduces further the likelihood of incurring currency conversion fees.
• No withdrawal fees.
• Rated as easy to use by many reviewers.

Cons:

• No support and integration for algorithmic trading or social/copy trading tools which are by now industry standards.
• Poor support for third-party tools. Just the WebTrader. Plus500 instead uses community data to give customers real-time access to the activities of other traders.
• The inactivity fee of $10 is charged if you do not log in to the account for 3 months.
• Guaranteed stop-loss orders are not available on all products and they feature wider spreads.

Trading Fees: Starting from 0.8 pips.

Other Charges/Costs: Overnight funding, currency conversion for currency different from the currency of your account, margin trading fees, guaranteed stop order fees, and inactivity fees.

#9) FXTM

Best for micro accounts, MT5 accounts, and high leverage.

FXTM provides market access for trading 1000+ financial instruments including 60+ forex pairs, stocks, commodities, CFDs of stocks, indices, and cryptocurrencies, among others. FXTM’s choice of accounts includes a Micro account which features raw spreads and no-commission trading.

The Advantage account does charge a commission but the spreads start as low as zero while the Advantage Plus does not have a commission although spreads are a bit wider.

FXTM provides much higher leverage to forex and other traders at 1:2000 which can be advantageous for pro traders if employed properly. It also supports or integrates with MT4 and MT5 which are advanced trading tools. This is in addition to the WebTrader and cTrader. Hedging and scalping are also allowed as is one-click trading and OCO orders.

Features:

• Hedging is allowed. No guaranteed stop loss.
• FXTM Trading Signals through the independent third-party Acuity Signal Center which provides trading signals three times a day for multiple assets and these signals feature entry, take-profit, stop-loss, and confidence levels. The Center also provides technical analysis and trading plans. It features analyst-led and AI-powered research.
• Copy trading and social trading.
• A host of additional tools to support your trading journey including a currency converter, margin calculator, pip calculator, profit calculator, and invest profit calculator.
• Trading education through the e-learning platform, market analysis, trading guides, daily market updates, expert analysis content, podcasts, industry events, etc. Also available are ebooks.
• Trading insurance of up to $1 million per client. UK license means insurance protections of up to 85,000 pounds for UK clients and 20,000 euros for EU clients in case of bankruptcy through CySEC.
• Affiliate program (earn affiliate commissions of up to $600 per qualified trader) with monthly payments, banners for promotions, customizable widgets for websites, detailed reporting of client details, etc. Affiliate program requires between $200 to $1000 deposit.
• Pro account features no maximum deposits, tier-1 liquidity providers, more base currencies, a maximum of 250 lots per trade, a maximum of 300 pending orders, unlimited open positions, etc.
• Multilingual support is also provided on three social media platforms.

Specifications:

Why we chose FXTM forex broker:

FXTM is one of the most recommended platforms for pro traders providing even lower commissions compared to many other platforms. Beginner traders will also find the Micro or cents account helpful with its no-commission and low deposit ($10) benefits. FXTM also provides an aggressive affiliate program.

Pros:

• Leverage of up to 1:2000 which is high in comparison to what most brokers offer. It is tiered though starting at 1:25, 1:100, 1:200, 1:500, 1:1000, etc depending on monthly trading volumes.
• Actionable trading insights and sentiments three times a day.
• Proprietary copy trading platform.
• High affiliate commissions.
• The inactivity fee is low at $5 compared to the $10 charged by many brokers.
• Low commission for pro account at $0.00 to $2.00 per standard lot compared to $3 charged on most brokerages.

Cons:

• Only three base currencies.
• A withdrawal fee of $3. Most of the withdrawal options have a fee on them.
• Higher deposit minimums for Advantage and Advantage Plus. Only Micro accounts require $10. The minimum deposit for FXTM Pro, which is most advisable to professional traders, is $25,000 or equivalent when done in other currencies.

Trading Fees: 0 pips to 1.6 pips for majors, 0.1 pips to 7.5 pips for minors, 0 pips to 53 pips for exotics. Commissions: $2 per lot which translates to between $3.92 to $4.88 in total commission depending on the FX pair and contract size.

Other Charges/Costs: Withdrawal costs, margin trading fees, overnight fees, etc.

#10) FP Markets

Best for MT5, money-managed accounts, no restricted scalping, and trading.

FP Markets provides access to 70+ forex markets, 10,000+ shares, 19+ major global indices, commodities such as coffee, corn, and natural gas; bonds, metals, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. There is a total of 10,000+ financial instruments to trade.

You also get access to MT4 and MT5 including their mobile and web versions, cTrader (not available for Australia clients), and WebTrader third-party platforms, and a VPS for running expert advisors. With 18 years of trading experience, FP Markets is multi-regulated and has garnered 40+ industry awards to prove its brokerage expertise including as a Best Forex Broker in Australia in 2020.

With its copy trading platform, beginner and mid-level traders may as well avoid developing their trading plans and analyses which is one of the difficult steps to trading forex and other assets. With the platform, you can either trade raw forex or forex CFDs.

Features:

• Hedging is allowed. No guaranteed stop losses.
• Chart with over 100 technical indicators, 15 drawing tools,
• Integrations include MT4, MT5, WebTrader, VPS, Myfxbook, and cTrader, in addition to proprietary iOS and Android apps. The MT4 and MT5 toolbox, like on many other platforms, includes tools like Alarm Manager which can help with risk management, Correlation Matrix, Correlation Trader, Tick Charts, Trade Terminal, Excel RTD reporting tool, Market Manager, Stealth Orders, Session Map, Mini Terminal, and Sentimental Trader.
• Money manager accounts MAM/PAMM.
• Copy trading is where a trader can become a copier or provider of copy trading. Social trading and
• Personal account managers.
• No trade restrictions including placement of trades, which is very useful for scalpers and algorithmic traders.
• News, economic calendar, auto open and close positions.
• Leverage ranges up to 1:500 for professional traders although retail is 1:30.
• Deposit methods are credit and debit cards, bank transfer, Neteller, Skrill, Asia Banks, SticPay, FasaPay, Virtual Pay, Rupee Payments, Rapyd, Perfect Money, Pagsmile, DragonPay, crypto, Rapid Transfer, Mybux, Xpay, ApplePay, GPay, P2P via FP Markets accounts, Qris, Coinspaid, and Broker to Broker payments. The company can also accept trading account third-party deposits.
• Trading hours: 3 p.m. to 12 a.m. EST Sydney session; 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. EST Tokyo session; 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST London session; and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST New York session.
• Trading resources include trading courses, webinars, podcasts, ebooks, events, tutorials, newsletters, and trading guides. The Traders Hub also delivers regular technical analysis content, fundamental analysis content, an economic calendar, and a forex calculator.
• Data access at a fee on the Iress accounts.
• 10 base currencies: AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, SGD, CAD, HKD, JPY, NZD, and CHF.
• More features on the Iress account including more advanced charts, access to heatmaps, live streaming of news, etc.
• Partner referral program.
• Trading rebates of up to 25% of commissions paid to professional traders.

Specifications:

Why we selected FP Markets, the forex broker:

FP Markets integrates with several third-party platforms to extend functionality including the MT4 and MT5’s exclusive trading tools; Myfxbook, social and copy trading tools, third-party signal provisioning, etc. Clients access one of the widest range of deposit options among forex brokers.

Pros:

• Free VPS for those who trade 10 lots or more per month on Standard accounts or 20 lots on Raw accounts. cTrader VPS subscription is paid if you manage 20 lots and 40 lots per month respectively in the aforementioned two account types. Free VPS is also provided for those who deposit $1000 or more initially or those who manage that volume monthly.
• Tens of money deposit and withdrawal options.
• High leverage including on standard accounts.
• No inactivity fees.
• Multiple third-party trading platforms.

Cons:

• No guaranteed stop-loss orders.

Trading Fees: From 1.1 pips to 13552.5 pips on average on Standard accounts (minimum is 0 pips and Majors have a spread remaining at below 1.6 mainly) and 0.2 to 13552.5 pips on average on Raw ECN accounts (spreads on Majors remain mainly at below 0.5 on average). Commission of USD 3 per size per lot on Raw ECN accounts.

Other Charges/Costs: Transaction fees, overnight fees swap rates, live price feed or stamp duty or settlement fee, fees to leverage trades, withdrawal fees, currency conversion, and account fees (MT4 and MT5 accounts are free).

#11) Eightcap

Best for MT5, retail accounts, and easy algo trading.

Eightcap facilitates the trading of CFDs of forex, commodities, indices, shares, and cryptocurrencies. It is used by over 50 million traders which tells of its popularity among traders. With it, customers can trade 736 tradeable symbols including 42 forex pairs, 200 crypto CFDs, and other financial symbols.

Support and integration of MT5 means customers can access over 80 indicators and 21 time-frames that come pre-installed with MT5. It supports a host of trading platforms and tools. The company is based was started in 2009 and is based in Melbourne.

It is regulated by three tier-1 jurisdictions including the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Financial Conduct Authority, Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, in addition to SGB.

Features:

• Hedging is allowed. The company does not offer guaranteed stop-loss.
• Third-party platforms TradingView, MT4, MT5, Capitalise.ai for code-free automation, BKForex FlashTrader which adds stops and targets to every automated trade for better order risk management, etc.
• Copy trading and social trading are supported.
• Expert trading analytics and ideas on the Trade Zone, daily market updates, in-house research, including weekly market forecasts, mid-week commentary webinars, trading outlook, technical and fundamental analyses by experts, etc. Also, trading education content.
• Trading education, live events featuring regular guest analysts, Eightcap Labs which can be used to aid traders in developing their trading skills, and an AI-powered economic calendar that enables them to generate trade ideas from 1000+ macroeconomic events.
• 7 base currencies: AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, NZD, CAD, and SGD.
• Minimum deposit is $100.
• Deposit and withdrawal methods are PayPal, credit and debit cards, wire transfer, BPay, Union Pay, Skrill, Neteller, cryptos, Interac, FasaPay, Pix, and DragonPay.
• High leverage of 1:500. 1:30 in ASIC jurisdictions.
• No restrictions on any trading strategies which is helpful, especially for any order placement levels when scalping or algo trading. Scalping is also allowed on all accounts.
• Trade size is 0.01 lots to 100 lots max for all account types.
• Trading hours: 00.04 to 23:58 hours for five days.

Specifications:

Why we selected Eightcap forex broker:

Eightcap, although provides market access to only a few forex pairs, does provide what most forex brokers cannot e.g. MT5 trading, and third-party platforms such as Capitalise.ai for code-free trade automation.

Pros:

• Innovative risk management for algo orders via the FlashTrader tool.
• Support and integration with several third-party trading platforms and tools.
• Get trading ideas, insights, market outlooks, and future price predictions.

Cons:

• ForexVPS is not provided to Australian clients.

Trading Fees: The average spread on the Raw account is 0.06 pips which is quite low. The commission on the raw account is $3.5 per trade per side. This means the total fee is around 0.76 pips which is below the industry average of 0.8 pips.

Raw accounts can have spreads as low as 0 pips. Standard accounts have a spread as low as 1 pip but do not have any commissions. TradingView also does not charge any commission.

Other Charges/Costs: Roll-over fees, a fee for leverage trading, withdrawal, and deposit fees.

Tips for Trading Forex: Beginner and Expert Traders

#1) Choose your Broker Wisely: Opt for a broker that offers comprehensive trading tools and allows for maximum customization of orders to ensure the best trading experience.

Best forex brokers mind about risk management, so ask what risk management orders and strategies they support. Most traders lose money during times of high volatility.

#2) Come up with a Trading Plan and Strategy: Consider your risk tolerance when setting up a plan. Do you have clear goals in your trading? A plan, including a clear strategy of when to enter and exit trades, helps you stay out of impulsive trading decisions. Decide on your most preferable trading lot sizes, position sizes, and of course, which pairs to trade.

#3) Never risk more than you can afford to lose and this should apply for each single order: There are tens of ways of limiting risks in forex trading and most forex brokers will support those.

They include in-built tactics such as (guaranteed) stop loss orders, which (types) include and buy-stop orders, stop-limit orders, sell-stop orders. Brokers also support alerts and margin calls to alert you when things are getting out of hand.

There also are personal strategies such as the 1% rule in that your position size should not exceed 1% of the total capital, determining your required win rate of closed position that is based on your reward/risk ratio, and properly gauging when to open and close trades. Portfolio diversification and hedging are also crucial in limiting risk.

#4) Know to Trade: All brokers support demo accounts and other platforms that allow you to back-test a strategy before you launch it live. Make sure you understand forex markets well before trading.

How to Choose a Forex Broker as an Aussie Trader

Research is Key: What are the tools offered on the broker platform? Check the leverages, regulatory compliance spreads and commissions, deposit and withdrawal methods and minimums, trading hours, minimum trade sizes, trading education available, availability of expert support e.g. through analyses, and availability of the forex pairs you want to trade.

Consider also the ease of withdrawing and depositing funds.

Use comparisons if need be: Most forex brokers do offer nearly the same features and it can be easier to choose if you use comparisons. You can make use of our comparison table and lists to arrive at the most preferred broker.

Recommendations: Clients and experts extensively review Australian forex brokers online and offline, making it possible to create a reliable list of recommended brokers. Our expertise review includes analyses of what features are supported on the various broker platforms and their benefits.

How did we Select these Platforms?

We considered client and user ratings, including score ratings, regulation in the Australian forex market, trading features and tools on their platforms, trading spreads and commissions, which constitute trading fees, and the popularity of the company.

In ranking these companies, we also looked at the forex markets available on their platforms, account types, nature of trading e.g. non-restricted scalping and hedging, other or extra fees charged, bonuses, and extra offers such as trading promotions/bonuses on trading fees, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

This tutorial considers the top Forex Brokers in Australia and can be utilized in researching global Forex trading platforms with which to trade. All of these platforms have a physical presence in Australia and/or are regulated by the ASIC.

IC Markets, AvaTrade, Eightcap, Plus500, City Index, and Trade Nation are some of the forex trading platform platforms we found. In addition to lower spreads, the three do not charge deposit and withdrawal fees besides the third-party costs incurred by banks and card issuers.

Selecting a good forex trading platform also depends on the features you need and through IC Markets, AvaTrade, eToro, and City Index,

City Index, IG Forex, IC Markets, and FP Markets also win in terms of the diversity of third-party trading platforms and tools supported for trading. This includes tools such as TradingView, cTrader, Myfxbook, Autochartist, MT4, MT5, Capitalise.ai, and Acuity, among others which offer more trading and order customization functionalities.

Research process:

• Trading brokers initially listed for review: 30
• Total Forex Brokers in Australia reviewed: 11
• Time taken in research: 24 hours