Using his experience, he helps traders find the best broker in his reviews. As an experienced trader and educator, Jitan brings all his qualities in action when reviewing and recommending brokers. These include market analysis, live trading events, and broker reviews. The team of forex and CFD writers and editors at FX Empire is composed of trading industry professionals and seasoned financial journalists. Beginner traders will be better off starting with a simple platform or a mobile app, while advanced traders will likely choose MT4/MT5. I assessed the pricing mechanism of PrimeXBT’s universal trading account, which features commission-free trading (except for cryptocurrencies) and floating spreads from 0.9 pips.

This broker suits traders looking for a wide selection of markets, diverse platforms, and analytical tools. Some brokers do offer ECN accounts on their platforms. Exness is a forex broker that offers Forex & CFD trading to South African traders and is regulated with the FSCA. Check out a side-by-side comparison of the trading platforms available at the best South Africa forex brokers, based on our independent product testing. Most brokers do not offer ZAR accounts, because the cost of the currency conversion fees on profits and losses could be a serious drain on profitability.

Introduction to the FSCA Regulatory Framework and Its Conditions for Forex Trading

XM Group is a trusted broker known for its robust educational materials and quality market research. Plus500 is still a great choice for less demanding traders. Read more to learn which forex broker is best for your needs.

You use virtual money on this account to practice trading and test your strategies. Most of these accounts have a thing or two common to them. If you want to go the conventional way, you can open a USD trading account.

• The broker operates under the oversight of multiple regulatory bodies, including ASIC in Australia and CySEC in Cyprus, plus FSA in Seychelles.
• The minimum deposit is just €50, which is among the lowest in South Africa and may appeal to traders with smaller starting balances.
• Tickmill, FxPro, Exness & HF Markets have account types for Pro traders.
• In terms of accounts, FxPro does offer Rand base currency account option.
• These warnings commonly involve clone firms, false FSCA license claims, and offshore platforms marketing illegal investment services to local residents.
• Limit and stop orders can come in handy in entering the market at the right time and price.

With 1M+ traders, the proprietary copy trading service has plenty of signal providers to deliver a competitive choice of strategies. However, in 2010, Plus500 launched a new web-based trading platform update, which allowed clients to trade using Windows PC, Mac, Linux, as well as most smartphones operating on either iOS or Android. They are regulated in New Zealand by the Financial Services Providers Register (FSPR) and offer a maximum leverage on some Forex currency pairs as high as 500 to 1. Traders get ultra-fast order execution with average speeds of 30 milliseconds, and MT4, MT5, cTrader, Myfxbook Autotrade, DupliTrade, and TradingView, plus a proprietary mobile trading app for copy and mobile traders. Beginner traders get an outstanding educational and research offering via Eightcap Labs and Eightcap Trade Zone.

Every regulated broker must display its South African FSP (Financial Services Provider) number on its website, typically in the footer. Clients can choose between MetaTrader 4/5, cTrader and the in-house FxPro Edge platform, with strong support for algorithmic and high-volume trading plus detailed execution stats. Standard account spreads are on the high side, and the lower-spread XM Zero account is available only in select regions. XM’s offering is strongest in platform support and research depth, but less competitive on pricing. Its education catalog is one of the most complete among mid-tier brokers, supported by daily videos, multilingual live sessions, podcasts, and Trading Central tools. XM Group is a good fit for traders who value structured education, frequent research updates, and a familiar MetaTrader-based workflow.

This is important since some brokers charge excessively and exorbitantly. The brokers registered with Tier-1 regulators such as FCA in the UK and ASIC in Australia can be considered if they are not registered by FSCA. However, not all brokers will be registered with the FSCA. That being said, the above list of the best brokers in South Africa itrader review was created using the criteria listed below. Probably the most important of all factors to consider is trading fees.

IC Markets

For example, we checked the fees for EURUSD at FxPro with their cTrader account (commission + spreads). To save your time, we have already calculated & compared the fees of all the brokers for you in our comparison. Tracking the fees charged by a broker & then comparing it with other brokers is not easy, but we are here to help you with this. Some brokers also charge extra fees during deposits & withdrawals, but don’t actually show it as their fees.

BDSwiss – Good Forex broker with 0 pip spread Raw account

Assume that you are trading NAS100 CFD at your broker at a lot size worth $1 per point move in NASDAQ. So, the overall trading fees can vary in the example above. This is lower when you compare it with their Premium account which has a spread of 1.3 pips on average for trading EUR/USD. So, if you are trading 1 mini lot, then the commission + spread for this trade will be 0.6 + 0.1 i.e. $0.7 for 1 mini lot trade. The higher the spread means the higher fees you are paying to trade.

It is easier to trade on a platform that allows one to fund his account through his local bank. With these options, you can select the account that suits you in terms of trading fees. Standard accounts are basic account types with standard fee structures, generally as spreads. The difference can be in terms of leverage & lower fees for large-volume traders. This type of account allows traders to trade without a middleman or link.

For example, if you are using long-term strategies, overnight fees will likely be more important to you than the spread or commission charged on opening and closing a trade. Some fee structures are better for longer-term traders and others for shorter-term traders. The FSCA authority extends to online derivatives providers (ODPs), including Forex and CFD brokers. At the time of writing, South African Forex quebex traders must pay 28% tax on net profits. Retail traders resident in South Africa, meaning individuals who trade their own money, can legally trade Forex and other instruments such as CFDs and cryptocurrencies. Capital.com connects social traders with 100M+ peers on TradingView, where scripts can automate strategies.

• Highly trusted and regulated across the globe, IG delivers a wide variety of rich features, market research, and powerful trading tools.
• Forex traders in South Africa face a dilemma over the choice of a brokerage firm to trade with.
• We rigorously test brokers on real accounts and evaluate them using our methodology.
• I always like to start with this step because no matter how much you like a broker, it will not matter if you do not have enough capital for the minimum deposit.
• Many brokers serving South African traders provide negative balance protection, especially for retail accounts.
• According to us, their fees is lowest with Pro Account if you are looking to trade without any extra commissions per lot.

Which Forex Broker is for Professional Traders?

There are many forex brokers that act as market makers, in which they take the opposite side of your trades. Its best to trade with forex brokers that offer some form of safety for your funds. Some forex brokers might also support a proprietary trading platform. Although some brokers also have Standard accounts with low spreads, some commission is involved for each trade (depending on your lot size).

AvaTrade is an European forex broker that was founded in 2006. AvaTrade is a European broker that is also regulated with FSCA in South Africa. Read our FxPro review to see detailed comparison of spread, platforms and features. The minimum deposit is $100 or equivalent in local currency if you hold your account in Rand.

How do I verify if a Forex broker is regulated in South Africa?

A completely unregulated broker might not keep your deposit safe by mingling it with their funds or could even disappear with your deposit. The first thing you should always look at when assessing new brokers is whether a regulator authorises it and what regulator certified it. As an aspiring new Forex / CFD trader or someone with experience looking for a new opportunity, your task is to pick the best Forex broker for you. This is why, although we give brokers overall global scores, we also give them different and appropriate scores on individual listing pages. XM offers a choice of over 1,000 tradable instruments with spreads as low as 0.6 pips on EUR/USD. It is a market maker broker with a very low barrier to entry of only a $5 minimum deposit requirement.

The overall trading fees is much lower with the Raw & VIP account types, but compared to other brokers which have similar accounts, the deposit requirements are quite high.. Tickmill is a Metatrader only forex & CFD broker & they offer MT4, MT5 & Webtrader platforms (their Metatrader platforms are available on multiple devices). They offer one of the lowest trading fees among the regulated brokers that we have compared & listed so far. Our award-winning platforms offer everything from powerful trading features for professional traders to streamlined solutions for beginners. Free trading of stocks, ETFs, and options refers to $0 commissions for Webull Financial LLC self-directed individual cash or margin brokerage accounts and IRAs that trade U.S. listed securities via mobile devices, desktop or website products. Fortress Core is dedicated to connecting institutional clients such as CFD brokers, asset managers, and other regulated financial services providers (‘FSP’) with a top-tier liquidity provider, ATFX Connect, and well-established trading technology vendors.

FSCA supervision influences how brokers operate, including capital requirements, client-fund protections, conduct standards, and product disclosures. But if you want one broker with low spread & FSCA regulation, then Exness is our recommendation with spread of almost 1 pip for EUR/USD in their Standard account. The approved ODPs include Tickmill, Exinity Limited (FXTM), Khwezi Financial Services (Khwezi Trade), Scope Markets SA, Admirals SA & a few other entities who are CFD brokers. The minimum deposit required to open this account is $500, but the typical spreads are very low for all the majors & crosses. Not only that, if your account base currency is in USD, then you would also pay currency conversion charges.

These checks may seem too much for some traders, but when you have your money in your trading account, these features become even more important. Most brokerage platforms have basic login, passwords checks to login to your account. But none of these brokers are really cheap, they have moderate spreads on most currency pairs. With their roboforex scam or legit API you can create new trading accounts, access the market data, open orders & close them.