FPMarkets Review
While FPMarkets trails industry leaders in research and education, spreads on MetaTrader are highly competitive, helping FP Market’s shine as a low-cost broker for forex and CFDs trading.
Top Takeaways for 2021
- Founded in 2005, FPMarkets is regulated in one tier-1 jurisdiction and one tier-2 jurisdiction, making it a safe broker (average-risk) for forex and CFDs trading.
- Broker offers the MetaTrader suite with ultra-competitive spreads through its Raw ECN account. Thanks to low costs, FP Market’s finished Best in Class 2021 for both MetaTrader alongside Commissions and Fees.
- MetaTrader aside, Broker offers its Iress platform suite with over 8,000 tradeable symbols. Focused more on shares trading than forex, Iress platform and data fees can add up quickly. As a result, it most suitable for high balance accounts and active traders.
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Overall Summary
Rank: 14th
| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Overall | 4 Stars |
| Trust Score | 81 |
| Offering of Investments | 4.5 Stars |
| Commissions & Fees | 5 Stars |
| Platforms & Tools | 4 Stars |
| Research | 3.5 Stars |
| Mobile Trading | 4 Stars |
| Education | 3 Stars |
Is FP Market’s Safe?
81Trust Score
FP Markets is considered average-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 81 out of 99. Broker is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. Broker authorised by one tier-1 regulator (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and zero tier-3 regulators (low trust). FP Market’s is authorised by the following tier-1 regulator: Australian Securities & Exchange Commission (ASIC). Learn more about Trust Score.
Regulations Comparison
| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2005 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No |
| Bank | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 1 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 |
| Trust Score | 81 |
Offering of Investments
Rank: 9th
The FP ‘ MetaTrader offering is limited to just over 130 tradeable symbols. Meanwhile, with the Iress platform suite, FP Market’s offers an extensive range of CFDs to global clients, consisting of 8884 shares, 61 forex pairs, four metals, 12 indices, five cryptocurrencies, and three commodities.
Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency trading is available through CFDs, but not available through trading the underlying asset (e.g. buying bitcoin). Note: Crypto CFDs are not available from any broker’s UK entity, nor to UK residents.
| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Forex Trading | Yes |
| CFDs (Total) | 8908 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 61 |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No |
| Cryptocurrency (CFD) | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes |
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. The vast majority of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs.You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Commissions and Fees
Rank: 2nd
FP Market’s offers highly competitive pricing through its MetaTrader offering, making it one of the most cost competitive brokers available to traders globally.
MetaTrader Standard versus Raw ECN account: FP Market’s Raw ECN account has competitive spreads averaging 0.64 pips in June 2020. Conversely, the Standard account is a less ideal option, as spreads are significantly higher (averaging 1.15 pips in June 2020 for the EUR/USD).
Iress ViewPoint Accounts (Australia): Iress ViewPoint accounts: The FP Market’s Iress platform suite offers three account options: Standard (AUD 1k minimum), Platinum (AUD 25k minimum), and Premier (AUD 50k minimum). To avoid platform and data fees, you must either qualify for Premier or spend at least $150 in commissions each month. For active trader and high balance accounts, Saxo Bank and CMC Markets offer a better deal.
Iress Investor Account (Australia): For traders seeking a bare-bones, low-cost experience, FP Markets also offers its Iress Investor trading platform. Monthly fees are waived; however, there is no streaming data by default (click to refresh quotes), and the charting package is severely limited compared to the Iress ViewPoint platform. Needless to say, if you can’t afford ViewPoint access, then pass on Iress Investor.
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| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Minimum Initial Deposit | $100 AUD |
| Average Spread EUR/USD – Standard | 1.14 (June 2020) |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD – Active | 0.61 (August 2020) |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes |
Platforms and Tools
Rank: 19th
Broker offers the entire MetaTrader suite alongside its Iress platform suite. For forex, MetaTrader is the better choice, while for shares trading, Iress ViewPoint is more ideal.
MetaTrader: For traders seeking a MetaTrader broker, FP Market’s offers the entire platform suite, including MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), along with the web-based versions of each.
Although FP Market’s offers less tradeable symbols on its MetaTrader platform, the 12 add-ons under its Trader Toolbox offering, along with excellent pricing, helped it finished among the best MetaTrader brokers.
Iress suite: As part of the Iress offering at FP Market’s, there are three web-based platforms offered: Iress Trader, Iress Investor, and Iress ViewPoint, which is for active traders.
My testing focused on the Iress ViewPoint platform, which features charting powered by TradingView (with 78 technical indicators) and a clean watch list tool. That said, I had a hard time pulling up forex quotes and did not find any forex news headlines. As a result, for forex trading, MetaTrader is the better choice.
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| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | No |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes |
| cTrader | No |
| DupliTrade | No |
| ZuluTrade | No |
| Charting – Indicators / Studies (Total) | 59 |
| Charting – Drawing Tools (Total) | Default (MT4/MT5) |
| Charting – Trade From Chart | Yes |
| Watchlists – Total Fields | Default (MT4/MT5) |
| Order Type – Trailing Stop | No |
Research
Rank: 19th
mostly found under the Traders Hub section on its website, separated into technical and fundamental analysis. Overall, when compared to the best brokers for research, including IG, TickMill, and IC Markets, FP Markets has room to enhance its research offering.
Content in the research section is partly educational, with over 50 articles under the Trading Knowledge section, and five ebooks, as well as a platform tutorial section. There are 12 MetaTrader add-ons from FX Blue (Trader Toolbox), pattern recognition indicators from AutoChartist, and access to MyFxbook.
YouTube: It is worth noting that FP Market’s does provide daily updates from written articles and video content on its official YouTube channel.
Forex news: Headlines stream within the FP Market’s MetaTrader platforms. Sources include Citibank, Rabobank, Commerzbank, Reuters, and other top-tier forex news providers.
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| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes |
| Weekly Webinars | No |
| AutoChartist | Yes |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No |
| Delkos Research | No |
| Social Sentiment – Currency Pairs | Yes |
| Economic Calendar | Yes |
Education
Rank: 23rd
Beyond some platform tutorials, an investor glossary, and archived content on YouTube, there is little educational content available at FP Market’s. FP Market’s offers a handful of instructional videos on its YouTube channel, including nearly 60 archived webinars.
Offering education-related content by experience level, in addition to specific topics, or adding progress tracking, would be a boost and help FP Market’s compete with education leaders such as TickMill and IC Markets. Overall, the range of educational content is something FP Market’s can improve.
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| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Has Education – Forex | Yes |
| Has Education – CFDs | Yes |
| Client Webinars | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes |
| Videos – Beginner Trading Videos | Yes |
| Videos – Advanced Trading Videos | Yes |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
| Tutorials/Guide (PDF or Interactive) | No |
Mobile Trading
Rank: 19th
FP Market’s offers the standard MetaTrader mobile app alongside two Iress mobile apps. After testing, I found myself preferring MetaTrader.
Iress ViewPoint mobile app: I tested the ViewPoint version of the Iress mobile app as part of this review. On the plus side, the watchlist syncs with the web-version, a nice touch. On the cons side, charts were basic and lacked candlesticks. Also, the trade-ticket was not smooth for order entry like other apps I tested. Bottom line, I was left wanting more.
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| Feature | FP Markets |
|---|---|
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Alerts – Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watch List | Yes |
| Watch List Syncing | No |
| Charting – Indicators / Studies | Default (MT4/MT5) |
| Charting – Draw Trendlines | No |
| Charting – Trendlines Moveable | No |
| Charting – Multiple Time Frames | Yes |
| Charting – Drawings Autosave | No |
| Forex Calendar | No |
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Final Thoughts
Overall, the FP Markets offering is mixed. First, its Raw ECN accounts for MetaTrader platforms provide competitive pricing near industry leaders in the commissions and fees category. However, there are far fewer symbols available to trade on MetaTrader, with less than 150 instruments in total.
Meanwhile, its Iress platform suite offers a substantial range of markets but is optimized for share trading, not forex. Platform and data fees are also a hurdle unless you have a high balance account or are an active trader.
Overall, FP Market’s trails industry leaders in the research and education categories but stands out for its industry-leading pricing on MetaTrader.