Best Forex Brokers 2022.
The ForexBrokers.com annual forex broker review (six years running) is the most cited in the industry. With over 50,000 words of research across the site, we spend hundreds of hours testing forex brokers each year. Here’s how we test.
Are you looking to speculate that the Euro (EUR) currency will go up in value against the U.S. Dollar (USD)? To do so, you would trade (or place a spread bet on) the EUR/USD currency pair, which is a forex investment. The forex market is the largest and most liquid market in the world, representing every global currency with trading conducted 24 hours a day, five days a week.
To trade forex, you need a reputable online broker. Trading with a trusted forex broker is a crucial factor for success in international currency markets. As a contract for difference (CFD) trader or forex investor, you may have specific needs related to which platform, trading tools, or research requirements you have. Understanding more about your investment style needs can help determine which forex broker will be best for you.
Each year, our team here at ForexBrokers.com spends five months testing the biggest names in foreign exchange and assembles a guide to the best forex brokers for forex and CFDs trading. Here are our findings for 2022.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 65% and 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Best Forex Brokers for 2022.
Best overall broker, most trusted.
Minimum Deposit £250.00 Trust Score 99 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 19537.
IG offers the ultimate comprehensive trading package, featuring excellent trading and research tools, industry-leading education, and an extensive range of tradeable markets. Read full review.
Outstanding platforms and tools Over 19,000 tradeable instruments Competitive pricing.
No predefined layouts on the flagship web platform Limited product range on MT4.
Join 239,000+ traders worldwide. (74% of retail investor accounts lose money)
Best web based trading platform.
Minimum Deposit $2,000.00 Trust Score 99 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 40000.
Saxo Bank is an exclusive multi-asset broker with brilliant research and a superb trading platform experience – as well as a stunning selection of over 40,000 securities. Read full review.
Flagship platform is top of the line Over 40,000 tradeable instruments Excellent customer service.
High minimum deposit.
182 forex pairs from just 0.4 pips (64% of retail investor accounts lose money)
Excellent overall, best platform technology.
Minimum Deposit $0.00 Trust Score 99 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 11927.
CMC Markets is well-trusted across the globe, and delivers a terrific trading experience thanks to its excellent pricing and its nearly 12,000 tradeable instruments. Read full review.
Low trading costs Excellent web and mobile platforms Robust research materials.
Educational offering could be improved MT4 offering limited to 62 symbols.
Great overall, best for professionals.
Minimum Deposit $0 Trust Score 99 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 7400.
Interactive Brokers is a highly trusted multi-asset broker with an extensive offering of tradeable global markets. It delivers competitive fees and high-quality research and education, as well as a modern, institutional-grade trading platform suite. Read full review.
Robust platform for professional traders Wide range of global markets Thorough research offering.
Trader Workstation platform is likely too complicated for inexperienced traders.
Quotes as tight as 1/10 of a pip (66% of retail investor accounts lose money)
Best desktop platform, U.S. only.
Minimum Deposit $0.00 Trust Score 98 Tradeable Symbols (Total) N/A.
TD Ameritrade’s thinkorswim platform offers over 70 tradeable currency pairs alongside a plethora of impressive tools, research, and education. For traders in the U.S., TD Ameritrade provides the ultimate trading technology experience. Read full review.
Outstanding platform in thinkorswim Thorough research offerings Excellent educational materials.
Does not offer copy trading Forex pricing is slightly higher than industry average.
Excellent all-round offering.
Minimum Deposit $100.00 Trust Score 99 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 5500.
FOREX.com is a trusted brand that delivers an excellent trading experience for forex and CFDs traders across the globe. It offers a wide range of markets and provides an impressive suite of proprietary platforms – alongside limited access to MetaTrader. Read full review.
Multiple high-quality platforms Excellent market research Wide range of markets.
Only about 600 instruments are available on the MT5 platform, compared to over 4,500 on non-MetaTrader platforms.
A Global Market Leader! (80% of retail investor accounts lose money)
Great research and education.
Minimum Deposit $0.00 Trust Score 95 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 10000.
As a trusted multi-asset broker, XTB offers outstanding customer service, a wide variety of forex and CFDs, and an excellent overall trading experience. Its xStation 5 trading platform is well-designed and packed with innovative features, and XTB’s comprehensive educational content and research helped the broker finish Best in Class for Research in 2022. Read full review.
xStation 5 platform is an industry standout Robust selection of trading tools Excellent customer service.
Pricing is just average.
275,000+ Forex traders globally (73% of retail investor accounts lose money)
Excellent all-round offering.
Minimum Deposit £100.00 Trust Score 99 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 4500.
Backed by StoneX Group, City Index is a trusted brand known for its versatile trading platforms, excellent mobile app, diverse market research, and extensive range of tradeable markets. Read full review.
Excellent platforms and mobile app Extensive range of markets High-quality market research.
Pricing is average for the industry Limited product range on MT4.
Trusted broker, best banking services.
Minimum Deposit $1000.00 Trust Score 99 Tradeable Symbols (Total) 466.
Traders choose Swissquote for its quality research and vast multi-asset offering – as long as they are willing to pay a premium to have their brokerage account held with a Swiss bank. Read full review.
Early leader in crypto offerings Strong banking services High-quality research.
Desktop platform needs updating Limited tradeable symbols for forex and CFDs Costs tend to be on the high side.
2022 Overall Ranking.
Here are the Overall rankings for the 39 online brokers who participated in our 2022 Annual Review, sorted by Overall ranking.
2022 Category Winners.
For the ForexBrokers.com 2022 Annual Review, all online broker participants were assessed on 113 variables across seven primary categories. 4,407 data points were collected in total. Here’s how we tested.
Alongside primary categories, ForexBrokers.com ranks brokers by the most popular investor categories. Finally, each year ForexBrokers.com honors the brokerages who go above and beyond in the areas that matter most to investors.
Winner: IG.
Regulated and trusted across the globe, IG offers traders the ultimate package of excellent trading and research tools, industry-leading education, comprehensive market research, and an extensive list of tradeable products. This fantastic all-round experience makes IG the best overall broker in 2022.
Trust: Founded in 1974, IG is publicly traded (LON: IGG) and regulated in six tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for forex and CFDs trading. All jurisdictions considered, IG ranks as the most trusted forex and CFDs broker in our 2022 Review. Commissions: IG uses its size to provide traders with consistent pricing across the board — regardless of the product you trade — and shines for its active trader pricing available through its Forex Direct accounts. Forex trading platforms: While IG also offers MetaTrader and premium MT4 add-ons from FX Blue, only 76 tradeable instruments are available. There’s no question; IG’s flagship platform is the better choice between the two, and offers an extensive range of tradeable markets.
Runner-Up: Saxo Bank.
For traders who can afford the steep $2,000 minimum deposit (GBP 500 for the U.K.), Saxo Bank offers fair pricing, excellent trading platforms, phenomenal research, reliable customer service, and over 40,000 instruments to trade.
Trust: Founded in 1992, Saxo Bank operates multiple regulated banks and is licensed in six tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for trading forex and CFDs. Commissions: Saxo Bank provides traders with excellent all-around pricing. For active traders (and those with large account balances), Saxo Bank offers competitive pricing in its Platinum and VIP accounts, which require a $200,000 and $1 million balance, respectively. Forex trading platforms: The entire Saxo Trader client experience is absolutely brilliant. Alongside access to 40,000 tradeable instruments, Saxo Bank’s flagship SaxoTraderGo platform is terrific, and includes everything traders require to navigate the market — and is our pick for the best web-based platform in 2022.
Podium finisher: CMC Markets.
CMC Markets is a globally-trusted broker that delivers a terrific offering for traders thanks to notably low pricing, nearly 10,000 tradeable instruments, and the Next Generation trading platform, which comes packed with quality research and innovative features such as its Dynamic Trading portfolio tool.
Trust: Founded in 1989, CMC Markets is publicly traded and regulated in four tier-1 jurisdictions alongside two tier-2 jurisdictions, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for trading forex and CFDs. Commissions: CMC Markets is a leader for low-cost trading, offering trading costs for forex that are measurably lower than the industry average. Forex trading platforms: TThe CMC Markets Next Generation platform comes with a massive selection of nearly 10,000 tradeable instruments. With its advanced tools, comprehensive market research and excellent mobile app, CMC delivers a terrific user experience.
Best Forex Trading Platforms.
Of the 39 brokers that we evaluated for our 2022 annual review, the following forex brokers delivered the best trading platform experience:
Saxo Bank – Best VIP client experience IG – Most trusted, great for beginners CMC Markets – Best platform technology Interactive Brokers – Best for professionals TD Ameritrade FX – Best desktop platform (U.S. only) FXCM – Great for algorithmic traders.
Which broker is the best for forex?
IG takes first place in our 2022 Annual Review as the best forex broker, with 100 available currency pairs and the ability to trade CFDs and forex options, traders have plenty of choices. IG is the only broker that is regulated in both Switzerland and the U.S., in addition to nearly a dozen global licenses — making IG one of the most trusted brokers.
What does a forex broker do?
A forex broker is a company that is licensed (or considered exempt) by a national regulator to grant you — as a retail or professional client — the ability to buy or sell foreign currencies, by way of an online trading platform or over the phone (known in the industry as voice broking). A forex broker may offer you the underlying currency, or a non-deliverable spot contract or derivative such as a contract for difference, or CFD, depending on any relevant country-specific regulatory restrictions. It’s important to only use brokers that are properly regulated to reduce your risk of being scammed.
Do I need a broker for forex?
Yes, to trade forex you’ll need to use a forex broker. You’ll need to open an account and deposit enough collateral (margin) to enable you to place orders with your broker to buy or sell forex.
The forex broker’s job is to execute your orders — either internally by acting as the principal to your trade (market maker execution), or by sending your orders to another market thus acting as your agent (agency execution).
Your broker should be a trustworthy one, regulated and properly licensed in the same country you reside or in a major financial center. Learn about our Trust Score for brokers.
Are forex brokers reliable?
The most trustworthy brokers are also reliable. Reliability depends on which broker you choose, and can vary across brokers. You must be able to rely on your broker to safeguard the money in your brokerage account.
There are other trust factors to consider how dependable a broker is, such as ensuring it has adequate financial operating capital, how long it’s been in operation, and whether it holds proper regulatory licenses in the countries where it operates to help ensure compliance with local laws.
Who is the biggest forex broker in the world?
IC Markets is the largest forex broker by trading volume, with over $774 billion in forex trading volume in the third quarter of 2021 alone, according to data compiled by Finance Magnates.
Note: The largest broker may vary depending on the time period used to measure size. But common to the biggest brokers is that they have the most assets under management, the largest number of clients, and greatest market capitalization (valuation for public companies). All are important factors to consider when gauging the size of a forex broker.
What are the top 10 forex brokers?
Here are the top 10 brokers by forex and CFD trading volume according to data compiled by Finance Magnates during the third quarter of 2021 (data excludes Japan due to the abnormally high trading volumes known to come from Japanese brokers):
Exness IC Markets IG Plus500 Saxo Bank CMC Markets TMGM FXCM GAIN Capital Pepperstone.
Which forex broker has the best platform?
CMC Market’s Next Generation platform comes with a massive selection of nearly 10,000 tradeable instruments. It delivers a terrific user experience, as well as advanced tools, comprehensive market research, and an excellent mobile app. Hands down, the CMC Markets Next Generation trading platform is a market leader that will impress even the pickiest of traders. The new Dynamic Trading tool allows you to place multiple trades simultaneously, which was a nice innovation by CMC Markets this year.
If you’re a particular fan of mobile platforms, see our picks for best forex trading apps here.
Is $100 enough for forex?
Yes, $100 can be enough to trade forex and test a trading strategy. It’s not a lot of money, so the potential risk/reward will be limited. However, trading with a small amount of risk capital can let you test a new investment methodology, or allow beginners new to forex trading learn by trial and error.
Trading forex with such a small amount of capital will severely hamper your bottom line but can be a great way to learn with less risk. For example, if you open the smallest trade size for forex — such as 1,000 units of the EUR/USD pair — and the price is 1.1224, your broker may require a 30:1 margin requirement. That 3.33% of the resulting $1,122.4 trade value would end up as $37.41 in collateral, which would become frozen upon opening the trade. This would only leave $62.41 available (and this calculation doesn’t even include the cost of the spread).
Which forex broker charges the lowest fees?
When it comes to pricing — commission plus spread — Tickmill offers the most competitive all-in costs, especially for active and VIP traders, who have access to pricing that is among the lowest in the industry. Using typical spread data listed by Tickmill for its Pro account offering of 0.13 pips for the EUR/USD, the all-in cost equates to 0.53 pips when factoring in the RT commission equivalent of 0.4 pips.
Methodology: To assess brokers, we take into consideration how much beginners, average traders, and even more seasoned traders would pay, looking at average spreads for standard forex contracts (100,000 units) as well as mini accounts (10,000 units) and micro accounts (1,000 units), where applicable. We then calculate the all-in cost by including any round-turn commission that is added to prevailing spreads.
Which forex broker offers the most CFDs?
IG offers the most tradeable CFDs in the industry, 19,537. CFDs, or “contracts for difference,” enable traders to speculate whether the price of a stock, forex pair, market index, or commodity will go up or down without taking ownership of the underlying asset.
Which forex broker offers the most currency pairs?
Alongside nearly 10,000 CFDs, CMC Markets offers the most tradeable currency pairs, with 158 pairs that can be quoted both ways (i.e. EUR/USD or USD/EUR), which comes to a total of 316 pairs.
Which forex broker is best for professionals?
As a highly-trusted and regulated global brand, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) provides everything professional traders might need, from advanced trading tools and platform features to competitive pricing across a wide variety of markets, as well as connectivity to over 130 global exchanges. In addition to competitive spreads and low commission-based pricing for forex, Interactive Brokers provides more third-party research than any other broker.
Interactive Brokers continues to innovate its platform offering, such as with its new Impact app for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, alongside the related Impact dashboard available in its Trader Workstation (TWS) desktop and WebTrader platforms.
Professional client status : In today’s highly regulated forex world, traders who want to maximize their margin leverage must apply and obtain ESMA’s professional client status with their broker. Traders designated as Professionals in the EU do not receive negative balance protection and other consumer safety mechanisms such as eligibility for compensation schemes in the event of a broker’s insolvency.
Methodology : We broke down each forex broker’s active trading program to assess brokers for professional trading, comparing available rebates, tiers, and all-in costs. Alongside pricing, each broker’s trading platform was tested for the availability of advanced trading tools frequently used by professionals.
How do I choose a forex broker?
Here are three of the most important factors to keep in mind when choosing an online broker for forex trading.
First, make sure your broker is properly licensed and regulated. The safety of your deposit is always the top priority. Next, compare the account offerings, trading platforms, tools, and investment research provided by each broker. Finally, read detailed forex broker reviews to compare pricing and product offerings (e.g., number of forex pairs and CFDs available to trade) to find what is most important to your forex trading and investment needs.
How do I know if my forex broker is regulated?
It is crucial to use a well-known, properly regulated broker to avoid forex scams. To check if your forex broker is regulated, first identify the registration number from the disclosure text at the bottom of the broker’s homepage. Next, look up the firm on the regulator’s website to validate the registration number; to help traders, we track, rate, and rank forex brokers across over 20 international regulators, and you can find their websites here. If the broker is not regulated in your country, do more research.
What’s the difference between a dealing-desk and an agency broker?
If a forex broker is operating as a dealer, also known as dealing-desk, they will be on the other side of their client’s trades. If a forex broker is not on the other side of their client’s trades, they will be acting as an agent (agency broker) by routing the trade on to another dealer.
There are also hybrid-desks, which may operate as a dealing-desk and agency. Lastly, matched-principals are dealers who immediately hedge their trades to remove any potential conflict of interest.
How do I calculate forex trading costs?
For forex and CFDs trading, the all-in cost to complete (open or close) each trade consists of the spread, plus any round-turn commissions. There may also be overnight financing charges, known as carrying costs, which can be either a net debit (loss) or a net credit (refund). To keep trading costs low, focus on trading the major forex pairs such as the EUR/USD, which offer the most liquidity, and thus the tightest spreads (lowest costs).
Methodology.
Each broker was graded on 113 different variables, including our proprietary Trust Score algorithm. This innovative scoring system ranks the level of trustworthiness for each broker based on factors such as licenses, regulation and corporate structure. Read about our Trust Score here.
As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy.
Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.
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About the Author.
Steven Hatzakis Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
Trading CFDs, FX, and cryptocurrencies involves a high degree of risk. All providers have a percentage of retail investor accounts that lose money when trading CFDs with their company. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money and whether you understand how CFDs, FX, and cryptocurrencies work. All data was obtained from a published website as of 01/10/2022 and is believed to be accurate, but is not guaranteed. The ForexBrokers.com staff is constantly working with its online broker representatives to obtain the latest data. If you believe any data listed above is inaccurate, please contact us using the “Contact” link at the bottom of this page.
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IG – 75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.