IC Markets takes first place in our 2025 Annual Review as the best forex broker, also Best MetaTrader 5 Brokers For UK, with 100 available currency pairs and the ability to trade CFDs and forex options, traders have plenty of choices.

A forex broker is a company that is licensed (or considered exempt) by a national regulator to grant you — as a retail or professional client — the ability to buy or sell foreign currencies, by way of an online trading platform or over the phone (known in the industry as voice broking). A forex broker may offer you the underlying currency, or a non-deliverable spot contract or derivative such as a contract for difference, or CFD, depending on any relevant country-specific regulatory restrictions. It’s important to only use brokers that are properly regulated to reduce your risk of being scammed.

Yes, to trade forex you’ll need to use a forex broker. You’ll need to open an account and deposit enough collateral (margin) to enable you to place orders with your broker to buy or sell forex.

The forex broker’s job is to execute your orders — either internally by acting as the principal to your trade (market maker execution), or by sending your orders to another market thus acting as your agent (agency execution).

Your broker should be a trustworthy one, regulated and properly licensed in the same country you reside or in a major financial center. Learn about our Trust Score for brokers.

The most trustworthy brokers are also reliable. Reliability depends on which broker you choose, and can vary across brokers. You must be able to rely on your broker to safeguard the money in your brokerage account.

There are other trust factors to consider how dependable a broker is, such as ensuring it has adequate financial operating capital, how long it’s been in operation, and whether it holds proper regulatory licenses in the countries where it operates to help ensure compliance with local laws.

IC Markets is the largest forex broker by trading volume, with over $774 billion in forex trading volume in the third quarter of 2021 alone, according to data compiled by Finance Magnates.

Here are the top 10 brokers by forex and CFD trading volume according to data compiled by Finance Magnates during the third quarter of 2021 (data excludes Japan due to the abnormally high trading volumes known to come from Japanese brokers):

• ICMarkets

• FP Markets

• ACY Securities

• PepperStone

• Exness

• Fusion Markets

Yes, $100 can be enough to trade forex and test a trading strategy. It’s not a lot of money, so the potential risk/reward will be limited. However, trading with a small amount of risk capital can let you test a new investment methodology, or allow beginners new to forex trading learn by trial and error.

Trading forex with such a small amount of capital will severely hamper your bottom line but can be a great way to learn with less risk. For example, if you open the smallest trade size for forex — such as 1,000 units of the EUR/USD pair — and the price is 1.1224, your broker may require a 30:1 margin requirement. That 3.33% of the resulting $1,122.4 trade value would end up as $37.41 in collateral, which would become frozen upon opening the trade. This would only leave $62.41 available (and this calculation doesn’t even include the cost of the spread).

When it comes to pricing — commission plus spread — Fusion Markets offers the most competitive all-in costs, especially for active and VIP traders, who have access to pricing that is among the lowest in the industry. Using typical spread data listed by Tickmill for its Pro account offering of 0.13 pips for the EUR/USD, the all-in cost equates to 0.53 pips when factoring in the RT commission equivalent of 0.4 pips.

Methodology: To assess brokers, we take into consideration how much beginners, average traders, and even more seasoned traders would pay, looking at average spreads for standard forex contracts (100,000 units) as well as mini accounts (10,000 units) and micro accounts (1,000 units), where applicable. We then calculate the all-in cost by including any round-turn commission that is added to prevailing spreads.

ICMarkets offers the most tradeable CFDs in the industry, 19,537. CFDs, or “contracts for difference,” enable traders to speculate whether the price of a stock, forex pair, market index, or commodity will go up or down without taking ownership of the underlying asset.

Alongside nearly 10,000 CFDs, IC Markets offers the most tradeable currency pairs, with 158 pairs that can be quoted both ways (i.e. EUR/USD or USD/EUR), which comes to a total of 316 pairs.

As a highly-trusted and regulated global brand, IC Markets provides everything professional traders might need, from advanced trading tools and platform features to competitive pricing across a wide variety of markets, as well as connectivity to over 130 global exchanges. In addition to competitive spreads and low commission-based pricing for forex, Interactive Brokers provides more third-party research than any other broker.

Interactive Brokers continues to innovate its platform offering, such as with its new Impact app for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, alongside the related Impact dashboard available in its Trader Workstation (TWS) desktop and WebTrader platforms.

Professional client status: In today’s highly regulated forex world, traders who want to maximize their margin leverage must apply and obtain ESMA’s professional client status with their broker. Traders designated as Professionals in the EU do not receive negative balance protection and other consumer safety mechanisms such as eligibility for compensation schemes in the event of a broker’s insolvency.

Methodology: We broke down each forex broker’s active trading program to assess brokers for professional trading, comparing available rebates, tiers, and all-in costs. Alongside pricing, each broker’s trading platform was tested for the availability of advanced trading tools frequently used by professionals.

Here are three of the most important factors to keep in mind when choosing an online broker for forex trading.

1. First, make sure your broker is properly licensed and regulated. The safety of your deposit is always the top priority.

2. Next, compare the account offerings, trading platforms, tools, and investment research provided by each broker.

3. Finally, read detailed forex broker reviews to compare pricing and product offerings (e.g., number of forex pairs and CFDs available to trade) to find what is most important to your forex trading and investment needs.

It is crucial to use a well-known, properly regulated broker to avoid forex scams. To check if your forex broker is regulated, first identify the registration number from the disclosure text at the bottom of the broker’s homepage. Next, look up the firm on the regulator’s website to validate the registration number; to help traders, we track, rate, and rank forex brokers across over 20 international regulators, and you can find their websites here. If the broker is not regulated in your country, do more research.

If a forex broker is operating as a dealer, also known as dealing-desk, they will be on the other side of their client’s trades. If a forex broker is not on the other side of their client’s trades, they will be acting as an agent (agency broker) by routing the trade on to another dealer.

There are also hybrid-desks, which may operate as a dealing-desk and agency. Lastly, matched-principals are dealers who immediately hedge their trades to remove any potential conflict of interest.

For forex and CFDs trading, the all-in cost to complete (open or close) each trade consists of the spread, plus any round-turn commissions. There may also be overnight financing charges, known as carrying costs, which can be either a net debit (loss) or a net credit (refund). To keep trading costs low, focus on trading the major forex pairs such as the EUR/USD, which offer the most liquidity, and thus the tightest spreads (lowest costs).

For our 2025 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 39 international forex brokers over a five-month time period resulting in over 50,000 words of published research. We reviewed the following brokers: IC Markets, ACY Securities, FP Markets, JustForex, OctaFX, Pepperstone, Exness, Tickmill, Fusion Markets .

Each broker was graded on 113 different variables, including our proprietary Trust Score algorithm. This innovative scoring system ranks the level of trustworthiness for each broker based on factors such as licenses, regulation and corporate structure. Read about our Trust Score here.

As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy.

Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.

A funded trading account is an account provided by a proprietary trading firm (also known as a “prop firm”) that allows traders to trade the firm’s capital, rather than their own. This model is popular in the trading world, especially for individuals who want to trade in financial markets like stocks, forex, futures, or cryptocurrencies but may not have sufficient capital to do so on their own.

Here’s how it typically works:

1. Evaluation or Challenge Phase

Most prop firms require traders to go through an evaluation process or a challenge to prove their trading skills. This phase usually comes with specific conditions, such as profit targets, maximum drawdown limits, and trading rules. Traders may pay a fee to participate in this challenge.

2. Access to the Firm’s Capital

Once the trader successfully completes the evaluation phase, they are given access to a funded trading account. This account is funded with the firm’s money, and the trader can trade using this capital.

3. Profit Splitting

In exchange for providing the capital, the prop firm typically takes a share of the profits generated by the trader. For example, the firm may offer a profit split of 70/30, where the trader keeps 70% of the profits and the firm keeps 30%. The specifics of the split vary between firms.

4. Risk Management Rules

Funded traders usually have to follow strict risk management rules, such as maintaining a certain level of drawdown (how much they can lose) or adhering to specific trading styles. These rules ensure the firm’s capital is protected.

5. No Personal Financial Risk (Limited Loss)

Since traders are using the firm’s capital, their personal financial risk is limited to the fee they paid to join the challenge (if any). If they lose money, it’s the firm’s capital that’s at risk, not their own.

Advantages of Funded Trading Accounts:

• Access to capital: Traders don’t need to risk large amounts of their own money.
• Leverage: Traders can control larger positions than they would be able to with personal capital.
• Skill-based: Rewards traders based on performance rather than just financial resources.

Disadvantages:

• Profit sharing: Traders have to share a portion of their profits with the firm.
• Challenge fees: Some firms require upfront fees to take part in the evaluation or challenge phase.
• Restrictions: Strict trading rules can limit flexibility.

This model appeals to traders who are confident in their skills but may lack sufficient capital to trade at higher levels.

1. Choose a Proprietary Trading Firm:
   • Research and select a reputable proprietary trading firm that offers funded accounts. Look for firms that align with your trading style and provide the necessary resources.
2. Understand the Requirements:
   • Each firm has specific requirements, including trading experience, capital contributions, or passing evaluations. Familiarize yourself with these criteria before applying.
3. Complete an Application:
   • Fill out the application form provided by the trading firm. This may include personal information, trading experience, and your financial background.
4. Pass an Evaluation or Challenge:
   • Many firms require you to complete a trading evaluation or challenge to demonstrate your skills. This usually involves trading a demo account under specific conditions within a set time frame.
5. Follow Trading Rules:
   • Adhere to the trading rules established by the firm during your evaluation. This may include limits on drawdowns, minimum trading days, and target profit objectives.
6. Receive Funding:
   • Upon successfully completing the evaluation and meeting all criteria, you will be awarded a funded trading account with the firm’s capital. This account will typically have specific guidelines for risk management and profit sharing.
7. Start Trading:
   • Once funded, you can start trading with real capital. Be sure to follow the firm’s risk management rules and maintain consistent communication with your assigned trading mentor or support team.
8. Withdraw Profits:
   • After achieving profitability, you can request withdrawals based on the firm’s policies regarding profit sharing and payout schedules.

Additional Tips

• Continuous Learning: Invest time in learning and improving your trading strategies. Utilize resources like webinars, courses, and trading communities.
• Risk Management: Focus on risk management strategies to protect your capital and enhance your chances of success.

Conclusion

Getting a funded trading account can be a significant step in advancing your trading career. By understanding the requirements and diligently preparing for the evaluation process, you can secure the necessary funding to trade more effectively.

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