Established brokers like IG Group are also great for new traders, especially those starting with smaller deposits. Alternatives like CMC Markets and Spreadex are equally beginner-friendly, with intuitive platforms that make forex trading simple and accessible. When I was walking down King William Street to L’Antipasto to meet my contacts at Pepperstone Forex Broker Forex.com for lunch, I put a few traders on. First, I looked at the trades that had a historic success rate of over 50% and followed them. Then I looked at trading signals that had a success rate of less than 50% and traded against them.
Compare the Best Forex Brokers
- However, it’s important to note the presence of an inactivity fee, which could affect less active traders.
- Some ECN brokers may also offer attractive zero spread accounts, but these aren’t the best for everyone as there will often be costs elsewhere.
- The UK has the largest share of forex trading at 43% globally, making it the largest forex trading center worldwide1.
- Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.
- For the best trading experience, you should also look for currency exchange brokers in the UK that offer a variety of other instruments to trade in the forex market.
Other than for certain times on the weekend, traders continuously buy and sell currencies. The amount they’re willing to buy and sell for pushes up or brings down the value of a currency in real time. So, the foreign exchange market is the place where currencies are traded. EToro ranks highly as one of the most renowned social trading platforms on the globe. We liked the professional support we could receive from Plus500 when trading forex.
The Standard Account offers particularly competitive spreads on indices, with spreads as low as 0.9 pips on the DAX 40 during my testing. For traders seeking lower trading costs, the Razor Account provides raw spreads from 0.0 pips, plus commissions, making it an ideal choice for active and experienced traders. Our live tests showed that IG’s trading fees are very competitive overall and better than the industry average. Available trading instruments include all the major asset classes including forex, stocks, indices, commodities, bonds, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. Our hands-on tests of the trading platform showed it to be easy to access, simple to use, and packed with lots of tools and additional features such as guaranteed stop-loss orders.
- IG, City Index, Saxo Markets and Pepperstone allow scalping on forex markets.
- By adhering to these criteria, we aim to provide traders with trustworthy options for their Forex trading needs in the UK.
- It offers a selection of short courses covering a broad selection of topics that beginners need to know.
- Access to tutorials, webinars, economic calendars, financial news feeds or forex calculators, for example, can help to boost efficiency and enrich trading knowledge.
- Trade CFDs on over 2,000 instruments on the MetaTrader 4/5 or cTrader platforms.
If you want automation capability, MetaTrader 4, has a vast marketplace available with custom Expert Advisors you can use. MetaTrader 5 also has these Expert Advisors plus the ability to trade shares while cTrader is great for scalping. Our broker reviews are reader supported and we may receive payment when you click on a partner site. You can check if a broker is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by going to the FCA Financial Services Register website and searching the broker’s name.
FCA Regulation: Why It Matters for UK Forex Traders
The platform enables trading in over 5,600 investment instruments, including shares, ETFs, forex, indices, and commodities. Whether you’re trading forex via CFDs or spread betting, IG offers a versatile and reliable experience designed by traders, for traders. The platform’s user-friendly web interface and optimized mobile apps make for a smooth trading experience on any device.
Is FX trading legal in the UK?
We also evaluate the overall design of the mobile experience, and look for a fluid user experience moving between mobile and desktop platforms. Steven Hatzakis is a well-known finance writer, with 25+ years of experience in the foreign exchange and financial markets. He is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for Reink Media Group, leading research efforts for ForexBrokers.com since 2016. Steven is an expert writer and researcher who has published over 1,000 articles covering the foreign exchange markets and cryptocurrency industries.
Consulting a tax professional or financial advisor can help traders navigate the complexities of taxation and minimize their tax liability. Forex is a popular investment vehicle in the UK, with over 400,000 residents regularly engaging in currency pair trading. To navigate this market, it’s essential to understand what is legal in the country, what is not, and how to identify reliable brokers approved by the local financial watchdog. Anthony is a financial journalist and business advisor with several years’ experience writing for some of the most well-known sites in the Forex world. A keen trader turned industry writer, he is currently based in Shanghai with a finger on the pulse of Asia’s biggest markets. Yes, gains from forex trading are subject to capital gains tax in the U.K., with certain exceptions including whether you are trading forex as a CFD, rolling spot contract or spread bet.
Which Broker Has The Best Copy Trading Tools?
The advanced tools are easy to navigate and straightforward to use, making the best orex broker appealing for beginner forex traders who wish to study market behaviour. The outfit is fully regulated by the FCA and has a solid reputation among customers in the UK. Admiral Markets stands out as a reliable platform for forex traders, offering access to 80+ currency pairs with competitive spreads and a user-friendly experience via MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5.
Again, these shouldn’t be the basis for your decision and should not take precedence over the other key considerations. Compare which popular payment methods the Best Forex Brokers 2025 support and whether they have trading accounts denominated in British Pounds (GBP). Compare how safe the Best Forex Brokers 2025 are and what features canadian forex brokers they offer to protect traders. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders.
This range of platforms means Pepperstone has the best platform options for to suit your trading style. Ross found that Pepperstone provides 100% zero-pip spreads on EUR/USD (outside rollover), making them the tightest available in the industry. In addition to EUR/USD, he found the same for other currency pairs like AUDUSD GBP/USD, USD/CAD, USD/CHF and USD/JPY. Not only did I find Pepperstone have avatrade review spreads from 0 pips, but some Forex pairs like the EUR/USD remain at zero pip spread for long periods. My colleague, Ross Collins used the MT4 Expert Advisors tools called SpreadMonitorEA to capture the spreads with the Razor accounts over 24 hours to see how they performed against other brokers. Our side-by-side analysis reveals whether a broker is competitive in relation to the industry as a whole.
In my opinion, Plus500 has the one of the most comprehensive collection of educational materials. The Beginner’s Guide and Trader’s Guide are 51 lessons that will get you going with Plus500 and learning trading strategies, with videos to make it easier to understand. You also have guaranteed stop-loss orders which protect you from market slippage. These are especially useful if you open a trade around high-impact market news like the non-farm payrolls, where the market can whipsaw, causing price slippage, which can be very costly. This filter system gives you 14 settings to select to help find the right copy trader for your requirements.
We recommend reading our Plus500 review which includes a full breakdown of all Plus500 fees. Yes, XTB’s xStation 5 platform is available as a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices. Interactive Brokers does not provide negative balance protection in all regions. Traders should check the specific terms applicable to their jurisdiction. Yes, Admiral Markets offers an affiliate program and an Introducing Broker (IB) program. Overall, Admiral Markets is considered a low-risk and can be summarised as a trustworthy and reliable Forex and CFD Broker.
The broker offers a wealth of educational resources suitable for new traders, including comprehensive articles, video tutorials, and in-depth courses. Interactive Brokers is an excellent choice for professional and experienced traders, particularly those interested in forex trading. The broker also emphasises educational resources, featuring a range of materials suitable for both beginners and experienced traders. Advanced traders should use the Razor account, which offers competitive commission spreads on key forex pairs.
You’ll also need to share your employment details and trading aims with your broker. Whilst waiting for your account to be verified, you can take advantage of a demo account and practice trading. At TopRatedForexBrokers, we help British traders to get most out of their forex careers by putting our industry knowledge to good use. There is no such thing as a free lunch they say, and that rings true in trading. Brokers have costs and they need to meet those costs somehow, whether that is through the spread and/or commissions or trading against their clients via B-book.
They have options like WebTrader, AvaTradeGo, AvaOptions, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, DupliTrade for automated trading, ZuluTrade for automated trading, and mobile and Mac platforms. The importance of customer support can easily be overlooked, but should you encounter any urgent issues with your account or trading platform, it’s important you can get help quickly. Note, if you wish to compare the best forex brokers with higher leverage, there are plenty of resources online. A good thing to do is to note down any fees from brokers’ websites or see our breakdowns in individual brand reviews.
Popular features such as one-click trading and trading from the chart are available. Traders can stay on top of key fundamental data with a built-in economic calendar. FxPro has retail and institutional clients in over 170 countries and is regulated by multiple authorities globally, including the top-tier FCA and CySEC. The London-based brokerage giant provides access to trading in forex and CFDs on commodities, stocks, indices, futures, and cryptocurrencies. The trading conditions include factors in which trading platform is offered, how many trading instruments are offered, what is the leverage, how much is the minimum deposit, and so on.