A forex broker is basically a platform that connects the Forex trader and the Forex market, acting as a middleman. It is very important to choose a good broker since many could just be scammers, and you might end up at a deep loss very soon. Moreover, a good Forex Trading Platform is very important for better growth and leverage options.
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), formally known as the Financial Services Authority (FSA), can be very useful to find a trusted trading platform. Financial Conduct Authority is a financial regulatory body established on 1st April 2013 that operates in the United Kingdom. Not to be confused, it is independent of the United Kingdom Government and works by charging members of the financial services industry in exchange for their services. They regulate the financial firms which provide services to the traders or consumers and maintain the integrity of Financial markets. They currently have regulation over 56,000 financial services firms in the country. Therefore, FCA approved Forex trading platforms are the most reliable resource for forex trading.
List of FCA Approved Forex Trading Platforms:
1. Exness: Founded in 2008, The Exness Group is an FCA approved Financial Trading platform. It is also licensed by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The group has more than 120,000 active users or traders. Exness provides its traders with a wide range of assets, including Forex and four others. They provide professional Accounts called Raw Spread, Zero, and Pro with account leverage of up to 1:2000 on the MT4 platform, and MT5 comes with unlimited leverage, with no trading commission on Pro account and 3.5 USD commissions on the Raw Spread and Zero accounts per lot, per side. They also offer 24/7 customer support and a wide range of Forex pairs; only a selection of US stocks is available.
2. FXCM: Founded in 1999, The FXCM (Forex Capital Markets) group is an FCA approved Financial Trading platform with an international online Forex brokerage brand. They provide a large number of trading tools that are free to use for the traders and a very low minimum deposit requirement, and have a comprehensive education section to help its consumers. But after losing its US regulatory license does not accept US clients, and after the new ESMA regulation provides a maximum leverage of only 1:30 for the majority of the currency pairs.
3. PLUS500: Plus500 is an FCA approved Financial Trading platform, they are also regulated by ASIC, Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, and MAS. Pluss500 is known to have 317,000 traders or consumers all over the world and more than 2000 CFD products available. They also provide a guaranteed stop-loss order and over 100 chart indicators available on the web platform. It is a simple, fast, and user-friendly platform but lacks a research and educational section for its customers and lacks news headlines and phone support.
4.Forex.com: Established in 2001, Forex.com is an FCA approved Financial Trading platform, a global FX and CFD broker. It is also regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). They have a variety of currency pairs and very low Forex fees, alongside several technical research tools for the traders. Although it is not a very user-friendly desktop platform, you can also trade on CFD and Cryptocurrency alongside FOREX.
5. ETX Capital: ETX Capital is an FCA approved Financial Trading platform that comes under London based company Monecor LTD. It is a very user-friendly platform with very fast account opening. They also offer a lot of deposit and withdrawal options, and it is also free of charge. You can also trade on CFD and Crypto along with Forex. They also provide great Educational tools but very basic research tools and provide only charting as a research tool and lacks news headlines.
6. IG: Established in 1974 and based in the UK, IG group is an FCA approved Financial Trading platform. It is also regulated by many other bodies like the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) of Germany. It is also listed on a stock exchange and discloses its financial conditions, so it is very safe to be considered. It is well designed, easy to use, and very user-friendly, and has a variety of educational resources and tools for its customers, which makes it highly recommended. Depositing and Withdrawing money is also super easy, and you are given multiple options. But in hindsight, the Forex fees are very high and have not so user-friendly and fast customer support services and limited products.
7. XTB: Founded in 2002 and its headquarters in Warsaw, XTB group is an FCA approved Financial Trading platform. It is also regulated by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission and International Financial Services Commission in Belize. It is a very user-friendly platform and comes with a fast account opening option and very low Forex fees. They offer two types of trading accounts called Standard, Pro in the UK, And Islamic accounts with a maximum leverage of 1:5000. They also have a wide variety of asset classes to trade on. They also provide a great range of educational and research resources to its customers and commission-free trading options. Although they come with very limited fundamental data and work only with bank wire deposits.
Conclusion
Besides the Financial Trading Platforms mentioned here, there are many other FCA approved Financial Trading Platforms. But these are some of the best ones for Forex Trading. It is recommended to have proper research about the platform, its Commission policy, and Tax deduction by the brokers before committing to a Trading Platform.
If you are planning to use any other Financial trading platform, make sure to have your researches thorough about the platform and so that you don’t fall prey to scammers. Many platforms provide high margins to attract more customers, but you should not fall for such tricks and have a solid research plan and strategy to avoid getting scammed.
