Forex.com Review 2023
Forex.com was launched in 2001 and has grown to become of the leading Forex brokers in the world, offering a wide range of tradable assets with competitive and transparent trading conditions. The broker serves over 1 million traders across the globe, including retail, professionals, and institutional traders.
To know the quality of Forex.com and how good it is at what it does, we reviewed the company’s brokerage services, including its regulations, platforms, global access, registration, account types, trading fees, leverage, education, and traders’ reviews.
Regulation and Security
Forex.com believes in the importance of strong regulatory oversight, which is why it is regulated in every country it operates in, as follows:
- United States: The National Futures Association (NFA) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
- United Kingdom: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
- European Union: Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC)
- Canada: The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)
- Australia: The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
- Japan: The Financial Services Agency (FSA)
- Singapore: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
- Hong Kong: The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)
- Cayman Islands: Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) — GAIN Global Markets Inc., the subsidiary under this regulation, serves clients from other parts of the world, including Africa and Latin America.
StoneX Group Inc., the parent company of Forex.com, is a NASDAQ-listed company with a strong balance sheet and experienced management team. The stock has been in a decent uptrend, a sign that the company is appealing to investors.
Deposit Compensation Scheme
Given the strict regulation, clients in some jurisdictions may be eligible for the deposit compensation scheme in the event the firm becomes insolvent or ceases trading. For example, UK-based clients may be eligible for up to £85,000 compensation under the financial services compensation scheme enforced by the FCA.
Negative Balance Protection
Forex.com uses this safety mechanism to make sure your account balance doesn’t get to negative levels in the event of a huge loss. It monitors your maintenance margin and issues a margin call early enough to prevent your equity from becoming negative. However, if it does become negative, due to a market gap, your balance would be reset to zero so you cannot lose more than your account balance.
Funds Segregation
The broker segregates all retail clients’ money from its own funds and holds them in separate accounts with top-tier banks. It only uses its own funds for hedging and never trades against its clients.
Is Forex.com available worldwide?
Forex.com operates from many countries around the world, including the US, the UK, Cyprus, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Cayman Island. The Cyprus office serves clients from the EU, while Cayman Island’s office serves clients from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbeans, and most of Asia.
The broker’s services may not be available in any country or jurisdiction where such services would be contrary to local law or regulation.
Supported Platforms
Of course, every trader would like to trade with the best trading platform, as it makes chart analysis, placing orders, and managing trades a lot smoother. This is why Forex.com provides traders with the best trading platforms, such as the following:
Forex.com WebTrader
This is the broker’s proprietary trading platform. It is a web-based platform, which means that you don’t need to download and install any software, as you can access it directly from any modern web browser.
The platform comes with over 80 customizable technical indicators, over 50 drawing tools, 14 timeframes (from 1 minute to 1 month), and multiple chart types. Interestingly, you can personalize your workspace by saving them as a template. You can even create new orders directly from the charts and click and drag to edit existing orders.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
Forex.com also provides traders with the MT4 trading platform, which is considered the industry standard since its launch in 2005. Accounting for over 90% of all transactions in the retail Forex market, MT4 is the most popular Forex trading platform.
The platform comes with 3 chart types (line chart, bar chart, and candlestick chart), 9 timeframes, multiple indicators, and many drawing tools. It supports the use of custom indicators, trading scripts, and expert advisors, as well as a strategy tester for testing your expert advisors.
The broker provides the desktop version of the MT4 platform, which can be installed on Mac and Windows computers. There is also a mobile app for smart mobile devices.
Mobile apps
Forex.com also provides traders with the mobile app of its proprietary platform and also offers them access to the mobile app version of the MT4 platform. Both apps are compatible with Android and iOS devices and they come with a clear user interface, performance analytics, smart signals, and an alert system.
With the mobile apps, you can manage your account — track open positions, review your trade history, and check your account balance on the go. You can download the apps from the Google and Apple stores or via the broker’s website.
Other Trading Tools
The broker also provides traders with various trading tools, such as Advanced Charts, Trading Central, Performance Analytics, SMART Signals, and Economic Calendar.
Account Types
Forex.com offers various account types to suit traders of different experience levels and trading capital. Here are the different account types and their features:
- Standard Account: This account is available on the broker’s proprietary web trading platform. It offers competitive spreads that start from as low as 0.8 pips (on EUR/USD) and no commission when trading Forex, indices, and commodity markets.
- MT4 Account: This account can only be accessed with the MT4 platform. The spreads are variable and start from as low as 1 pip. There are no commissions (except for shares), as the trading fees are already added to the spreads. The account offers fully integrated Reuters news and Trading Central technical analysis.
- DMA Account: DMA means direct market access. As the name implies, the account provides direct access to the interbank market. So, there is a spread mark-up, but there are commissions to pay. The account is designed for experienced traders.
- Corporate Account: The account is designed for businesses and institutions, with multiple authorized traders for one account. Other unique features of the account include dedicated support and the ability to fund the account with corporate cash supplies.
Forex.com also provides a demo account, which you can use to practice trading and test and optimize your trading strategy in a risk-free environment before deciding to put your money on the line.
Signing Up
To sign up with this broker, you have to click on the Create Account button at the top-right corner of the broker’s website, and select the type of account you want to create then fill in the form.
When you finish, you will answer questions about yourself and your trading experience. Then, you provide your KYC documents for your account to be verified. When this is done, you will have to fund your trading account to start trading live.
Deposit and Withdrawals
Forex.com allows funds deposits and withdrawals via multiple payment channels, including bank transfers, credit/debit cards, and electronic wallets, such as PayPal. Credit card and PayPal payments are processed immediately but bank transfers may take up to 2 days to be processed.
The minimum withdrawal fee is $100, while the maximum is $10,000 for credit/debit cards, $20,000 for PayPal, and no limit for bank transfers. There are no deposit or withdrawal fees, but your bank or the payment processor may charge some fees.
The broker does not accept third-party payments, in accordance with anti-money laundering rules.
Instruments
The broker offers a wide range of trading instruments across Forex, Indices, stocks, commodities, and metals.
- Forex: You can trade over 80 FX pairs, including all the major pairs, minor pairs, and some exotic pairs.
- Indices: Most of the world’s biggest equity market indices are available for trading as CFDs. You can go long or short as you want.
- Stocks: There are thousands of UK, US, and global shares with commissions from 0.08%.
- Commodities: You can buy and sell a wide range of commodity CFDs, including US crude oil, gold, and silver.
Commissions and Fees
The broker’s fees vary with the market and your account type, but the fees generally include spreads, commissions, rollover fees, borrowing costs, and inactivity fees. For retail accounts, the broker only charges commissions on shares CFD trading, and the spreads are very competitive, with a EUR/USD spread as low as 0.8 pips.
Rollover fees are charged for positions that are held overnight. You incur a borrowing cost when you short stock CFDs. Inactivity fees apply when there has been no trading activity within 12 months. The fee is £12 per month until trading activity returns or there are no funds in the account.
Available Leverage
Brokers offer leverage to allow you to increase your staking size. Leverage may help you to increase your potential profits, but it can also magnify losses when the market goes against your position, so do not misuse it.
The leverage offered depends on the account type and jurisdiction. For retail clients in the UK and EU, Forex.com offers up to 1:30 leverage for currency pairs in accordance with the MiFID II directive. Professional traders and retail traders from other regions can get more than that.
Analysis and Education
The Academy section of the Forex.com website contains many educational resources, including:
- Courses
- Lessons
- Platform Tutorials
- Webinars
- Glossary
The trading courses cover some of the most important topics in trading, such as technical analysis and developing a trading plan. They are grouped into beginners, intermediate, and advanced.
Customer Service
You can reach Forex.com’s customer support team 24 hours a day, from 10pm Sunday to 10pm Friday (London/UK time). There are many channels to reach them, including live chat, email, and phone. For UK clients, the email is ukinfo@forex.com, while the phone number is 0800 032 1948 (Int’l: +44 207 429 7900). You can also contact them by filling out the contact form on their website or via social media channels: Facebook and Twitter.
Reputation amongst Traders
Forex.com has received mixed ratings from traders on different rating websites. For example, on Trustpilot, it has a rating of 2.9/5 out of 150 reviews. While some are happy with its trading platform and mobile app, others are not happy with fund withdrawals.
Awards
The broker has won several awards over the years for its trading platform, mobile apps, and trading analysis.
Can beginners trade with Forex.com?
Yes, beginners can trade with Forex.com. The broker has many courses to introduce beginners to the world of trading, as well as many platform tutorials to help beginners learn how to trade with its platform. Also, the broker provides every trader with a demo account for practice purposes.
Summing Up
Forex.com is a leading online broker for trading financial assets, serving over a million traders around the globe. The broker is famed for its award-winning platforms, tight spreads, low commissions, and dedicated support.
The broker offers many trading instruments across Forex, indices, stocks, energies, and metals. Both new and old traders can benefit from their educational resources.
Most importantly, the broker is strictly regulated by multiple tier-1 regulators across the globe. However, it needs to improve on its payment methods.
