There are plenty of things to consider when your looking to choose a forex broker and thousands of options for you to choose from. How do you know which broker is the best fit for you? How can you be sure your broker is legitimate? Here are a list of the top 5 most important things to look for in a broker!
A regulated broker is a broker which is federally monitored and is continually being watched by local governments. Regulation ensures that what you are going to be doing with your money is relatively secure. Without regulation, a broker has free range on how they choose to handle your money. Because of this, you could face more issues trying to deposit or withdrawal money.
Forex brokers make their money through through fixed rate commissions, and/or taking a small bid/ask spread on your trade. Spreads and commissions are similar but spreads can be a bit more dynamic and get wider or smaller based on the markets liquidity. During an off hour, spreads get bigger, during a busy trading hour, they tighten.
When you are checking out a broker be sure to look at the reviews online as well as go through their website. Look for any information about what the broker says about their own spreads and their own commissions. Be competitive here and aim to find good spreads and commissions offered by different brokers.
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how well you do with your trading account if you can't withdrawal your money. When looking for a broker, you want to have easy access to deposit and withdrawal from your account. Usually, a well regulated broker will have a very smooth process with this as opposed to unregulated brokers.
Another aspect to take into account when choosing a forex broker is what trading platforms and tools they provide. You want to make sure that the platforms that your broker is offering are competitive and align with your preferences. Further, checkout the tools that they offer traders on their website.
Lastly, and perhaps most important, you want to make sure your broker has exceptional customer support. When facing issues regarding your money, you want to feel confident that your broker will provide you will easy access to support. Read reviews and reach out to the customer support of different brokers so you can get a feel for how reliable their customer support is.
Hopefully, reading this article provided you with insight on how to choose a great broker. Checkout a list of our favorite brokers here. Or take our broker quiz here to find the best broker for your needs!
Blueberry
| User Friendly | 4/5 |
| Customer Service | 5/5 |
| Education | 3/5 |
| Overall Score | 4/5 |
This fully regulated brokerage service has nearly a perfect score by major client hubs like Google, Trust Pilot, and FPA. With a quick execution speed and tight spreads, this broker makes trading simple and efficient for the user. Although they require a minimum deposit of $100, they also have a lot of trading options to choose from such as forex, CFDs, commodities, indices, metals, and crypto.
And to talk about tight spreads, this broker can give you a 0.0 pip spread on their standard account, but will guarantee a 0 pip spread on their direct account. Blueberry is also platform-friendly as they allow MT4, 5 and Web Trader. With their 24/7 customer support, help is always available should a question or issue show up.
To sign up with Blueberry Markets, click here.
AxiTrader
| User Friendly | 4/5 |
| Customer Service | 4/5 |
| Education | 5/5 |
| Overall Score | 4.3/5 |
Winner of the 2018 Most Trusted Broker UK Forex Awards, Axi, or AxiTrader, has proven to be the trader's broker with low trading costs and inactivity fees. Their customer service is also unmatched, with a multilingual customer support of 14 different languages brings traders from around the world to this service. They have won awards in their customer service department that available 24 hours, 5 days out of the week.
What also makes this broker a good pick for those looking for a new broker or are just new to trading, is the ease of setting up an account. With a user-friendly system, opening an account is one of the simplest things to do, and no minimum deposit amount is required along with zero deposit and withdrawal fees. However, the selection of assets to trade are pretty limited as you can only trade forex and CFDs. But what they lack in variety, they make up for in education. And for those new traders looking to learn, Axi is one of the best for that. Their education is top tier when ranking them against the other brokers. With videos, articles and ebooks, the user has lots of tools at their disposal to get themselves ready for trading.
To sign up with Axi, click here.
Hugo's Way
| User Friendly | 5/5 |
| Customer Service | 3/5 |
| Education | 1/5 |
| Overall Score | 3.7/5 |
Whether you live in the US or anywhere in the world, you're in luck. Hugo's Way is a private broker that is available anywhere in the world, however, it is not a regulated broker. If you are an experienced trader, this broker is one of the best choices as it has over 150 tradeable assets to pick from giving you full access to all the markets. However, there is no education section which might make this service not the best for beginners. So, what it lacks in education, it makes up for in tradability. Customer service is 24/7, and as a user of this broker, I can say that they have always had polite and timely support regardless of the time of day. For those US citizens trying to trade the indices, metals, commodities, crypto, stocks, and more, I would say Hugo's Way is the best option for that.
If you want to learn more about Hugo's Way, click here.
There are many traders out there that believe they have what it takes and the skill to be a successful trader, except for the fact that they do not have enough capital to trade big time. There are companies out there that offer to fund traders and take percentages out of their monthly gains. Today I will discuss the process of trading for a prop firm like FTMO or if you should altogether avoid it.
FTMO, you may have heard of it, you may have not. FTMO is essentially a prop firm that offers funding for traders to trade on the company's behalf and then keep a fair profit split at the end of every month.
So, how does the FTMO challenge work you may ask? It begins by you selecting how much you would like to be funded, all options at a refundable fee (more on that later), and beginning your challenge. Below is a screenshot of the options available directly from the FTMO website.
As you can see, FTMO offers a wide range of different funding for traders; you can get funded up to $100,000 by the company. Yes, you read that correctly, a real live account with 100,000 US Dollars and not one cent of that money is yours, and as you gradually grow that account, you get to keep a share of the profit.
How much may you ask? 70%! That means if you made 12% in one month on a 100K account, which is $12,000, you get to keep $8,400! You can choose to either withdraw it or use it to compound your account, making you more money in the long-run. Sounds great right?
As you see, there is a "challenge" you must complete; it is solely an evaluating process for FTMO to test if you have what it takes to be a successful long-term trader. Let's look at what they evaluate.
The FTMO Challenge begins with aiming for a +10% profit over a period of 30 days with a minimum of at least ten days to achieve this target profit. This is because FTMO knows trading is a long-term game and does not look out for short-term success.
You must also stay below the max -10% loss throughout the whole process with a maximum of -5% in one day. What this means is, if at the end of the challenge you've reached -10% loss, you've failed, or if in one day you lost over 5%, you've also failed.
That's about it, not too complicated, and the best part, if you successfully pass this challenge, you are refunded the amount you've paid to start the challenge, and then you continue to the verification stage.
During the verification stage, it is essentially the same thing except you have double the amount of time to reach your target profit, which is also halved.
To sum up, you have 30 days to achieve +10% during the challenge; once successful; you move on to the verification stage where you have 60 days to achieve +5%.
Whether you're an FTMO trader or not, you are able to contact a representative at FTMO at any time and ask any queries you may have. Alternatively, you can also email them or even phone up their office between the office hours.
If you are based in Prague, there's an office address available which is welcome for traders to set up an appointment and meet a representative in person. What great transparency from a prop firm!
They offer many tools to help you with your trading, they want you to succeed! The full list and explanations of each tool is available here however let's quickly list them all:
In summary, if you know that you have been consistently making a good profit per month, with minimal drawdown, and you're looking for the opportunity to trade for a reputable company to not only fund you and trade for them, FTMO is the company for you.
They have an excellent reputation in the industry, all the way from sticking to their word and paying out their clients, all the way to excellent customer service and functionality.
From my experience, I can easily say this isn't some miracle get rich quick scheme though; the challenge isn't as easy as it initially sounds. We all know trading is hard, and anyone who tells you otherwise is just trying to fool you.
If you are a serious trader, then definitely give it a shot! If not simply sign up and give the free trials a go and start working towards your $100,000 account.
| Customer Service | 4/5 |
| Commissions & Fees | 3/5 |
| Platform, Tools & Education | 1/5 |
| Customer Reviews & Regulation | 3/5 |
| Offering of Investment | 4/5 |
As a user of Hugo's Way, I can say that it has been an amazing experience so far. Here is what I, along with other traders think of this broker:
Customer Service
On the Hugo's Way website, you can easily access their customer support through filing your name and sending a request, or you can access your representative on the bottom corner of the screen to pull up a chat. First hand, I can tell you that the response time is very quick and efficient. When I had an issue, I contacted my representative through the support button and got a reply within minutes. Their 24/7 client support department is very timely, similar to AxiTrader.
Commissions & Fees
Hugo's Way offers a $5 USD commission per traded lot. So, on a .01 lot, you would pay five cents per trade, on a .02 lot you would pay ten cents, and so on. Commissions are a little more expensive for this private broker compared to AxiTrader ($3.5) and Oanda ($0.01 minimum). There are no fees to sign up, and the process is very general and simple.
Platform, Tools & Education
Hugo's Way uses the standard MT4, MT5 platforms with a maximum leverage of 1:500. They also have tight spreads and good execution on trades. As far as scanners, bots, and other tools, this broker does not provide any of that which could turn some users away. Beginning traders might want more tools to access for their trading, but that is up to the user's preference. Hugo's is more focused on helping clients with account issues rather than providing education, which is probably why their customer support has been very thus far. It is also easier to not provide tools and scanners for clients because someone will always have an issue with it.
Customer Reviews & Regulation
For clarity, Hugo's Way is not a regulated broker meaning that if something were to happen to them (go out of business), they would not be obligated to recover any of your funds. However, this broker works hard at helping all their customers because it is good for business. On almost every broker review page, someone has an issue with recovering funds or withdrawing from their account. According to TrustPilot, the reviews were majority 5 stars and 1 star, giving Hugo's Way a 3/5 on their site. A plethora of reviews were concentrated on their customer support which was either praised or condemned by users. So, there are very mixed reviews regarding Hugo's client portal; it might just be the luck of the draw.
Offering of Investment
The reason why I use Hugo's Way is not only because it is hard for a US citizen to gain access to indices and metals, but they also offer a variety of stocks to trade including Tesla, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, McDonald's, Intel and more. The broker has so much to offer for the user, especially for US citizens who are looking to trade these along with currencies, metals, commodities, crypto and exotics. This is definitely one of the best brokers out there access-wise. For those of you who want to trade indices like the US30, NAS100 or SPX500, this is a good place to start.
Overall Rating: 2.8/5
| Customer Service | 1/5 |
| Commissions & Fees | 3/5 |
| Platform, Tools, and Education | 4/5 |
| Customer Reviews & Regulations | 3/5 |
| Offering of Investment | 3/5 |
Customer Service
Going off customer reviews, Forex.com doesn’t have the best customer service. Traders say that it takes too long for them to verify their account. More reviews say that it’s too hard to deposit and withdrawal cash, and accounts get locked up. It looks like the biggest problem is withdrawing money with multiple reviews regarding that issue.
My rating for this section is 1/5.
Commissions and Fees
With this broker, traders are given the choice to use between 3 different accounts: standard, commission and STP Pro. Although you don't have to pay for commissions on the standard account, spreads are not so tight. 1 pip is not that big a deal, but it is not as good as other forex brokers like AxiTrader that provides .4 pip spreads on their no-commission account. So execution is not as tight, but you're also not paying commission. The commission and STP Pro accounts are have some very tight spreads, although you have to pay for either one through commissions or their service.
My rating for this section is a 3/5.
Platforms, Tools, Education
Forex.com uses MetaTrader as one of their main platforms as well as their own Forex.com platform. They also allow API Trading and NinjaTrader. One of their trading tools includes their Recognia scanner that shows quick trade set ups using pivot tables and support and resistance levels. They also have advance charting tools that you can try out for free with lots of educational content regarding trade.
I give this section a 4/5.
Customer Reviews & Regulation
Forex.com is regulated in over 180 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands according to Investopedia. Overall trust for this broker is decent for a very highly regulated broker.
My rating is 3/5
Offering of Investment
Forex.com has higher spreads than other international brokers and trading crypto is not allowed to those who live in the US. If your account goes negative, there is no protection that the broker has to provide and your account will become liquidated. If there is a problem with your account, their customer service is not the best and may take a while to resolve the issue. Other than those reasons, Forex.com has great tools and education for trading. If you live outside the US, this broker is something to consider, but other brokers provide crypto trading for US citizens.
This section will get a 3/5
My Rating
From the majority of customer reviews, it seems like you might get what you pay for with this broker, but I believe that there are better options. This broker is definitely not above-average broker, and a very important feature brokers need is a good customer support team. Because ratings are so poor, this broker is not as great as the other options out there.
My overall rating is a 2.8/5.
Thanks for reading! If you are interested in joining our trading community, we have chat rooms, trade alerts from our top traders, and educational content. You can join using the link below, and get a discount on your membership.
Disclaimer:
Please note that this email is my personal opinion only. I am not a licensed financial advisor, and any information shared or discussed is not to be construed as investment advice. Trading and investing involves a degree of risk, and is not suitable to all investors. Please consult with your financial advisor before making any sort of investment decisions.
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
| Customer Service | 5/5 |
| Commissions & Fees | 4/5 |
| Platform, Tools, and Education | 5/5 |
| Customer Reviews & Regulations | 4/5 |
| Offering of Investment | 4/5 |
Founded in 2007, AxiTrader came up with the idea that they would be the broker "we'd want to trade with", and it caught on. Backed by the ASIC, the broker is considered one of the best out there.
Customer Service
Compared to other brokers, AxiTrader has probably the best, award-winning customer service out there in the forex brokerage world. The response time is considered "unmatched" as customer service representatives are always there waiting to help. Their multilingual staff can help respond to any question they are given. Customer service ratings on the website range between 4.5 and 5 stars because of how fast they are. If I were to rate this broker, I'd give them 5/5 stars on their customer service.
Commissions and Fees
AxiTrader offers two accounts: the standard account and the pro account. Listed on the AxiTrader website, the two accounts are compared.
Key things to look at are the spreads and commission fees. On the pro account, investors have more accurate and tight spreads, but you pay for it in commission. The standard account is not as tight, but all trades are free excluding swaps. With this broker, you can expect great execution on either account, a .4 pip spread is pretty tight. I'd give this section a 4/5.
Platform, Tools, Education
The MetaTrader 4 Platform is the primary software they use with AxiTrader. They also have helpful trading tools that can be very useful for traders including the MT4 Web Trader, MT4 VPS Hosting, and Signal Providers. One of their tools, the Autochartist, scans for trade set ups and alerts you when it finds one. It is also free to every client. Another cool thing is that they carry tutorials, trading tips, videos, ebooks and trading tools to help you become a better trader.
A broker with so many resources should get a 5/5 in my opinion.
Regulation
The licensed and regulated broker has received some outstanding reviews by their customers. AxiTrader is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and is considered safe with average risk.
My rating: 4/5
Offering of Investment
With AxiTrader, you can trade 80 major currency pairs, crypto, indices, and CFDs, including metals and commodities. This broker seemingly covers all aspects to trading, and you certaintly are getting some of the best service.
My rating: 4/5
My Rating
This company not only provides a brokerage service, but tools, education, signals, software and so much more. With an award-winning customer service and highly trusted broker, I would have to rate AxiTrader at a 4.5/5 for the amazing service they provide.
Thanks for reading! If you are interested in joining our trading community, we have chat rooms, trade alerts from our top traders, and educational content. You can join using the link below, and get a discount on your membership.
Disclaimer:
Please note that this email is my personal opinion only. I am not a licensed financial advisor, and any information shared or discussed is not to be construed as investment advice. Trading and investing involves a degree of risk, and is not suitable to all investors. Please consult with your financial advisor before making any sort of investment decisions.
As an attractive and easy platform to use, Robinhood is very popular among younger traders. I too started a Robinhood account when it was relatively new and loved the easy-access platform and app. This broker allows you to trade US stocks, indices, options, gold and cryptocurrency. They even have a new feature called fractional shares trading. With that, you can invest in any stock for less than one share is worth. Let's say you wanted to buy Amazon but didn't have $2,400 at your disposal. With fractional shares, you can put in $10 and own part of a share of the company.
Another cool feature that propelled this broker was the fact that it had commission-free trading. Unlike other brokers that charge commission on every trade, Robinhood charged absolutely $0. TD Ameritrade used to be $7 a trade. Since then, they have moved to zero commission as well.
All of these features are great to have, but there are some concerns that investors have kept in mind. Starting in late February, Robinhood servers began messing up due to a huge amount of volume being traded. People who had their trades in couldn't take profit or get out of a trade, buy orders failed, and sell limits failed. The whole system shut down for twelve hours, and investors were furious. One person lost around $500,000 because his orders didn't get filled. Now Robinhood is under a class-action lawsuit, and traders were given a sincere note of apology as well as a request form to report what trades went wrong. Fortunately, I was not in any big trades at the time and was left pretty much unscathed. Overall, the sentiment for Robinhood trading was questioned and uncertain if the servers would be able to execute trades accurately when the time comes. Since then, Robinhood has been working hard to improve and give customers lots of resources and new features to help trading access, but that event was a hard lesson for both Robinhood and its traders.
In my opinion, Robinhood is nice for beginners with small accounts who are looking to start their investment journey. It also has a pretty quick and accurate execution time for those who want to trade. Also, trading options has never been easier than on the Robinhood app. It helps explain everything to those who don't fully understand options, like most options traders.
If I had to rate Robinhood, I'd give it a 7/10 because it was the first platform/broker I ever used to trade real money and was super easy. I was able to clearly see news, analysts rankings and real-time movements all on my phone. Now, most brokers provided a phone app and commission free trading to battle the disrupting business Robinhood has created. Overall, I think Robinhood is a great platform and will be even better in the future. But for now, they have a few kinks to work out.
Featured Photo: https://cdn.robinhood.com/assets/robinhood/shared/robinhood-preview.png
Thanks for reading! If you are interested in joining our trading community, we have chatrooms, trade alerts from our top traders, and educational content. You can join using the link below, and get a discount on your membership. Also, I will put my Robinhood link below for those of you interested in starting an account. If you sign up using my link, we both get a free share of any stock!
http://join.robinhood.com/francec36
Disclaimer:
Please note that this email is my personal opinion only. I am not a licensed financial advisor, and any information shared or discussed is not to be construed as investment advice. Trading and investing involves a degree of risk, and is not suitable to all investors. Please consult with your financial advisor before making any sort of investment decisions.
