FOREX.com Review

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 73% of retail CFD accounts lose money You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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.

Though it’s not a discount broker unless you trade larger volumes, FOREX.com’s multi-asset offering will appeal to forex traders of all experience levels.

FOREX.com pros & cons

Overall summary

Is FOREX.com safe?

FOREX.com is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 99 out of 99. FOREX.com's ultimate parent company, StoneX, is publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by four tier-1 regulators (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). FOREX.com is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Learn more about Trust Score.

Offering of investments

The products and services available to you at FOREX.com will depend on your location, and on which of its regulated entities holds your account. For example, while CFDs are not available in the U.S. due to regulatory issues, FOREX.com offers an impressive selection of over 4,500 CFDs for traders living outside of the U.S. Also, knock-out options are now available at FOREX.com in Japan, Singapore, and Australia.

Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency trading is available at FOREX.com through CFDs, but not available through trading the underlying asset (e.g., buying Bitcoin). Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents.

The following table summarizes the different investment products available to FOREX.com clients.

Commissions and fees

FOREX.com offers multiple execution methods, three account types, and transparent execution statistics. That said, our research found that FOREX.com is slightly expensive when compared to the industry average.

Standard account: FOREX.com’s Standard account is the only option available for MetaTrader clients – and would not be my ideal choice. Average spreads are high at 1.1 pips (1.3 in the U.S.) on the EUR/USD, based on typical spread data provided to us by FOREX.com (August 2021). The Standard account will appeal to traders who are willing to pay a premium (in the form of a higher spread) for the benefits of market-maker execution.

DMA account (known as the STP PRO account in the U.S.): The DMA account is available globally, and is tied to FOREX.com’s proprietary Advanced Trading platform suite. It also offers agency execution and the highest potential discounts at FOREX.com.

• Typical spreads for this account for the EUR/USD pair during August 2020 were 0.03 pips, which comes to 1.5 pips after adding the round-turn commission equivalent of 1.2 pips in the base tier.
• The effective all-in cost is nearly the same as the base tier in the Commission account (see below) unless you trade more than $100 million per month (Tier Two), which brings the effective spread down to 1.1 pips. Meanwhile, traders that turn over more than $2 billion per month (Tier Six) would realize effective spreads of 0.7 pips, comparable to what IC Markets or Tickmill offer.

Commission account (U.S. only): The Commission account option is tied to FOREX.com’s proprietary trading platforms (not available with MetaTrader), and requires a $10,000 deposit alongside at least $25 million in monthly volume. It is designed for medium-to-high volume traders seeking discounts from FOREX.com's Active Trader program (which is also available in Canada).

• There are five volume tiers with rebates ranging from $2 per million at the base tier to $9 per million at the highest tier (level five).
• The base commission for the lowest tier is expensive at $10 per Standard lot ($5 per side), which adds about one pip to the typical spreads of 0.8 pips for the EUR/USD (based on August 2020 spread data).
• After factoring in the $2 discount (equivalent to 0.2 pips), the effective spread is 1.6 pips – this total includes the typical spread of 0.8 pips and the 1.0 pip round-turn commission equivalent (minus the 0.2 pip discount).
• Bottom line: unless you trade more than $50 million per month, the all-in costs for FOREX.com’s Commission account are practically the same as the Standard account for U.S. residents, the only differences being execution method and available platforms.

Mobile trading apps

Overall, FOREX.com’s mobile offering competes among the best brokers in the industry.

Apps overview: FOREX.com offers its proprietary mobile app alongside the full suite of MetaTrader mobile apps, including MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).

Ease of use: Trading and managing positions within FOREX.com’s mobile app is easy and straightforward, thanks to its fluid user interface and minimalist design. Highlights include an economic calendar, an integrated suite of modules from Trading Central, alerts, market updates, and news headlines from Reuters. The app also supports complex order types such as OCOs, trailing-stops, and a "close all" button which allows traders to exit multiple positions quickly for a given instrument.

Charting: The FOREX.com app automatically syncs watchlists, and includes easy-to-use charts powered by TradingView that feature over 80 indicators and a vast array of drawing tools. Your chart settings won’t sync automatically with the web version, but I found the "load chart layout" function can be used to manually load your saved templates.

Other trading platforms

FOREX.com goes above and beyond to provide forex traders with everything they need to trade effectively. FOREX.com's platform suite has historically been – and continues to be – robust.

Platforms overview: FOREX.com provides its own flagship Advanced Trading (desktop) and Web Trading platforms, alongside TradingView, the full MetaTrader suite (MT4 and MT5), and NinjaTrader.

Charting: FOREX.com's flagship desktop platform, Advanced Trading, is best suited for seasoned traders and comes with a robust charting package loaded with a large selection of nearly 140 technical indicators, as well as drawing tools and over a hundred predefined automated strategies.

That said, charts on the FOREX.com desktop platform are not as smooth as its Web Trading web platform counterpart, which features charts powered by TradingView.

Web trading: Best suited for casual traders, FOREX.com's Web Trading platform makes browsing through markets, conducting research, and placing trades a breeze. Charts are powered by TradingView, and come loaded with nearly 100 indicators, 14 timeframes, and ten chart types.

The Advanced Trading platform features advanced order types, deep customization, and plenty of subtle-but-useful features – such as the ability to set price tolerance from within the trade ticket. I found the layout well-designed, easy to use, and rich with features. For the sake of comparison, I found the Advanced Trading platform similar to FXCM's own impressive proprietary platform.

Market research

FOREX.com does a great job of centralizing its research within the Advanced Trading platform and keeping it organized for easy accessibility. The only downside with FOREX.com’s research offering is its general lack of video content.

Research overview: Multiple news channels, automated pattern-recognition modules from Trading Central, and blog updates from FOREX.com's global research team are all available within the Web Trading platform. Headlines stream from Reuters and a Trading Central-powered economic calendar is integrated across the site and platforms.

Market news and analysis: FOREX.com produces a variety of good-quality written content each day, covering multiple markets and sector themes. Content includes weekly posts such as its "Week Ahead" series, daily articles produced by FOREX.com’s in-house analysts, as well as integrated resources from third-party providers. For example, research tools powered by Trading Central are directly integrated throughout its suite of platforms, such as its popular Market Buzz, Technical Insight, and Analyst Views modules.

Video content: Surprisingly, market-based research in video format is practically non-existent at FOREX.com. Experimenting with video by, for example, transcribing some of FOREX.com’s written content into video format, would help FOREX.com reach a wider audience.

Education

FOREX.com offers nearly a hundred written articles that are conveniently organized by experience level, with content for beginner, intermediate, and advanced users. Overall, I found these articles to be of good quality and well-organized, bringing FOREX.com’s educational offering just within reach of our best in class rating.

Learning center: Though there are dozens of platform tutorials available on its YouTube channel, FOREX.com simply doesn't offer a comprehensive selection of educational videos. Video is where competitors like CMC Markets gain a clear upper hand over FOREX.com.

Final thoughts

FOREX.com is a trusted forex broker that shines thanks to its extensive product offering, excellent platform options and trading tools, and its selection of in-house and third-party market research.

That being said, pricing is not its strongest feature, and there is a general lack of video content for research and education. However, FOREX.com still delivers a great experience to forex traders of all experience levels.

What is the minimum deposit for FOREX.com?

For the Standard and Commission accounts, the minimum deposit at FOREX.com is generally $100 (or the equivalent in your local base currency) when funding with Neteller, Skrill or a credit or debit card, while the DMA account requires $25,000. There is no minimum per transaction when funding via wire, though FOREX.com recommends at least $1,000 for all accounts besides the DMA account.

Does FOREX.com charge a fee?

Like every forex broker, FOREX.com charges a fee when you trade – either in the form of a commission fee or spread fee. FOREX.com offers commission-based accounts and a spread-only Standard account. There may also be fees when you deposit or withdraw funds – depending on your payment method. FOREX.com doesn’t charge any fees for incoming deposits – though your bank may charge you depending on the method used (i.e., when sending a wire).

Is FOREX.com a good broker for beginners?

FOREX.com is a well-rounded broker that scores highly in nearly all categories, and is a good broker for beginners thanks to its wide range of educational content, quality market research, and the ease-of-use factor across all of its platforms. For example, its straightforward web platform delivers a good variety of both basic and advanced features, including risk-management tools and robust charts, making it a good choice if you are a less-experienced trader looking to develop your trading skills.

About FOREX.com

Founded in 1999, FOREX.com is a GAIN Capital brand under the parent company of StoneX Group (NASDAQ: SNEX), a Fortune 500 company and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA) in the U.S. StoneX holds $10.9B in assets as of August 2021, with $198M in excess regulatory capital. Through its trading names and subsidiaries, including the City Index brand, Gain Capital operates in multiple countries and with licenses in several major regulatory hubs, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, Japan, and Australia.

GAIN Capital executes an average daily volume of $8.1B for its retail clients in 2020 alone (year-to-date). As an early pioneer in offering online forex trading in the U.S., FOREX.com remains one of the largest retail FX brokers globally, with over $3.9 billion in customer equity. Read more on Wikipedia.

2022 Review Methodology

For our 2022 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 39 international forex brokers over a three-month time period resulting in over 50,000 words of published research.

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 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.

Forex Risk Disclaimer

There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.

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