Best Forex Brokers in Australia

Are you resident in Australia and looking to start trading forex? Australia is a popular destination for forex traders, with a growing number of brokers offering high-quality services and competitive trading conditions. It's important to do your research and choose a broker that is reliable, reputable, and aligns with your trading goals.

The best forex brokers for retail traders in Australia are regulated by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), have a low initial deposit requirement and fees, feature valuable analysis and trading tools and provide excellent customer support.

To make the selection process as painless as possible, Benzinga explores some of the top forex brokers in Australia, their features and what sets them apart from the competition. By choosing the right broker, you can enhance your trading experience and increase your chances of success in the forex market.

Quick Look: Best Forex Brokers in the AU

• Best for Fast Execution Speed: Blackbull Markets
• Best for Trading Experience: Pepperstone
• Best for Low Fees: Axi
• Best for CFD Trading: City Index
• Best for a Reliable Trading Platform: CPT Markets
• Best for Forex and CFD Traders: Capital.com
• Best for Multi-Platform Trading: IG Markets
• Best for Social Copy Trading: eToro
• Best for Educational Content: Avatrade
• Best for Easy-to-Use Forex Platform: Trade Nation

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Disclosure: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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Best Forex Brokers for Australian Clients

Here are reviews of the top Australian forex brokers.

1. Best for Fast Execution Speed: Blackbull Market

BlackBull Markets is a leading forex broker founded in 2014 with its headquarters located in New Zealand. Its global expansion and strong reputation has established it as a trusted and reliable choice in the trading industry. BlackBull Markets is known for offering a wide range of trading options including forex, indices, commodities, energies, metals and CFDs.

One notable aspect of BlackBull Markets is its regulatory status. The company is regulated by both the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in New Zealand and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the Seychelles. 

2. Best for Trading Experience: Pepperstone

Pepperstone is a well-established Australian forex broker known for its competitive spreads and reliable trading platform. The platform is well-regulated, offers a range of trading instruments, algo trading, API trading, Autochartist and quality customer service. Yes, there could be slippage, but the platform performs quite well on the whole, has a good reputation and keeps costs low. You will enjoy:

3. Best for Low Fees: Axi

Axi provides a variety of trading instruments such as forex, CFDs, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies, enabling you to diversify your portfolios and capitalize on various market opportunities. They provide competitive spreads, low commissions and offer a secure and reliable trading platform that is user-friendly.

Axi offers educational resources, market analysis tools and expert insights to assist you in your trades. The broker also provides customer support with a team available 24/5 to address any questions or issues. Axi is overseen by reputable financial authorities such as the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

4. Best for CFD Trading: City Index

City Index, an esteemed Australian forex broker, is renowned for its investment opportunities and exceptional trustworthiness with a perfect score of 99 out of 99. As one of the leading forex trading brokers in Australia, City Index stands out for its outstanding features. The broker is publicly traded and falls under the regulation of ASIC, ensuring transparency and security.

Additionally, it is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), further emphasizing its commitment to regulatory compliance. City Index's parent company, GAIN Capital, is a publicly listed entity on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), showcasing its strong financial standing. For verification of its regulation and details about the central regulatory body, please refer to the disclosure text available at the bottom of the website.

5. Best for a Reliable Trading Platform: CPT Markets

CPT Markets offers competitive trading conditions, a wide range of trading instruments and excellent customer support tailored to the needs of Australian traders. They offer a responsive and user-friendly platform with 0 commissions and low spreads starting at 0.7 pips. 

CPT Markets holds licenses from financial authorities such as FCA UK, FSCA South Africa and IFSC Belize. They provide traders with flexible payment methods and have separated local bank accounts for a secure trading experience. Additionally, the CPT MT4 platform is user-friendly for both beginners and experienced traders. It is designed to perform well in all market conditions.

6. Best for Forex and CFD Traders: Capital.com

Capital.com is a platform for traders of all levels. Beginners can utilize a demo to understand charts, positions and indicators easily. The platform offers extensive educational materials and round-the-clock support. Traders can adjust their position sizes conveniently to manage their exposure.

Experienced traders are attracted to Capital.com because of its intuitive charts, drawing tools and over 75 indicators that can enhance analysis skills. Leveraged trading is also available on the platform, which allows traders to control larger positions with low margins, but it comes with the risk of amplified profits and losses. The broker boasts fast execution, swift withdrawal processing and quick customer service responses.

7. Best for Multi-Platform Trading: IG Markets

Among being a highly trusted broker, IG Markets checks all the boxes that create an excellent forex trading experience. IG features advanced trading and research tools, top-notch education and access to virtually all the markets. 

The broker meets the needs of traders at all levels of experience, providing a multi-trading platform that includes the popular MetaTrader 4 platform, ProRealTime and IG’s proprietary web-based platform.

8. Best for Beginners: eToro

eToro pioneered innovative and popular social copy trading, allowing users to mimic trades of successful traders step-by-step. The Israeli-based broker, though initially focused on forex and crypto trading, also offer a vast range of other investment products, such as stocks and ETFs. The trading account is customizable to match trading style and account type.

eToro provides an online community where investors can connect and share strategies through a social media-like interface. 

9. Best for Educational Content: AvaTrade

AvaTrade is an internationally acclaimed broker notable for its variety of trading platform options. It supports the popular MetaTrader 4 and 5 trading platforms as well as its proprietary WebTrader and AvaTradeGo platforms.

The broker offers 44 forex pairs and over 1,200 CFDs. AvaTrade’s rich educational resources are on par with the best in the industry, which makes it a great fit for beginners.

10. Best for Easy-to-Use Forex Platform: Trade Nation

Trade Nation is a unique and powerful forex and CFD broker that brings fixed spreads to Australian traders across the continent. You can get into 1000 markets, spend less on fees, review those fees and get support 24/7.

Use a demo account to practice or simply fund your account and start trading today. There’s something for everyone on Trade Nation, and it makes it easier for you to greatly expand the forex and CFD side of your portfolio.

***Disclosure: Financial Spread Trades and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to high leverage.

Understanding Forex in AU

Forex traders gain or lose money depending on the difference in price movements within a currency pair. A currency pair in forex trading is made up of two currencies that are exchanged in a trade. The pair includes the base currency, which is always listed first, and the quote currency.

The exchange rate is the cost of one currency relative to another, which might go up or down in value. These price changes are influenced by supply and demand, fiscal policies and politics. Forex trading goes on around the clock globally. 

How to Choose the Best AU Forex Brokers

There are a lot of great Australian forex brokers for foreign currency traders in Australia. We had to choose a handful to highlight and each has its unique advantages. We looked at some key areas, including the trading platform, account type and execution speed.

Spreads

In most cases, forex brokers earn their money by using a spread between the bid price and ask price. A broker with tighter spreads generally takes less profit from the trader, although other fees or expenses may apply to some trades.

ASIC Regulation

Brokers that apply for ASIC regulation must have minimum capital holdings of $1 million AUD and keep investor funds segregated from broker funds to provide an extra layer of safety for investors.

Cash Management

Brokers that provide multiple ways to fund your account make trading easier and allow traders more options to capitalize on new trading opportunities. Moving money out should also be hassle-free.

Trader Tools

From charts to news feeds to historical data to demo accounts that allow traders to test strategies without risking real capital, the quality of trading tools available from a broker can be the differentiating factor if all other factors are relatively equal.

Customer Support

With many forex brokers offering 24-hour support, customers have come to expect that brokers will have one or more ways to reach out if they have questions or to report problems with their account or the platform.

How to Trade Forex in Australia

If you are a resident of Australia and considering forex trading, here is how to get started:

Find a Broker

Most of the forex trading is carried out by institutional investors such as banks. However, as an individual, you can get into the forex market through a broker.

Several brokers are available to Australian investors. To research the right broker to sign up with in Australia you must note the following:

• ASIC Regulation: The broker must be registered with ASIC. ASIC requires a minimum capital of AUD $1 million from brokers and ensures that they separate investors' funds from broker funds. These compliance measures establish the reputation of your broker and ensure the safety of your funds.
• Trading platform: The broker you finally choose connects you to the markets through a trading platform. Choose a broker that supports a platform with solid technical and fundamental analysis tools, an intuitive interface and comprehensive educational content.
• Platform features: The best broker for you should offer a great trading experience through features such as low commissions and spreads, high maximum leverage and margin, low initial deposits and ease of usage.
• Customer support: You should be able to get 24/7 support since the forex markets never sleep.
• Currency pairs: Your broker of choice should have a vast variety of currency pairs on offer. But most importantly, they should have the particular pairs you are interested in trading. 

Setup a Trading Account

After selecting the ideal broker, you must open an account and deposit funds with them to start your trading journey. You can fund your account via debit cards, wire transfers, PayPal and several other available options. 

Learn and Practice

The forex trading space can be intimidating for a beginner. Take the time to learn the market’s intricacies using resources offered by most brokers. You can combine the learning stage with practice using a demo account which most brokers offer. With virtual accounts, you can get your hands dirty without risking any real money. 

Research the Forex Market

Only proceed to trade with real money when you understand the market and currency pairs. Each currency pair may be impacted by ongoing news events and other factors you’ll need to research. You can try starting with less volatile currency pairs between developed market currencies before you move on to emerging or frontier market currencies.

Trade Forex Confidently in Australia

Forex trading can be risky, but you’ll have better tools to trade and hopefully fewer fees when you sign up with a suitable broker. To get the list of the top Australia forex brokers featured above, Benzinga analyzed brokers along the parameters of trading platforms, currency pair availability, educational resources and trading tools.

Frequently Asked Questions