FOREX.com Review Is Gain Capital UK A Legit Broker

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About FOREX.com

FOREX.com are forex brokers. FOREX.com offers the MetaTrader4 and GTX-Forex ECN top forex trading platforms. FOREX.com offers over 40 currency pairs, gold, and silver for your personal investment and trading options.

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Broker Details

Minimum Trade Size:	0.01

Maximum Leverage:	200:1

Minimum to Open Live:	$50

Established:	2001
Address:	Bedminster One 135 US Highway 202/206 Suite 11 Bedminster, NJ 07921, United States
Contact:	[email protected], 1.877.367.3946
Regional offices:
Regulators:	CIPF #, CIMA #25033, FFAJ #1539, FCA #113942, NFA #0339826
Prohibited countries:

Yes

Yes

Trading platforms:	MT4, MT5, WebTrader
Web Trading:
Mobile Trading:
Currencies:	(80+)
Cryptocurrencies:	(5+) Litecoin, Ethereum
CFD:	(25+) Gold, Silver, Other Precious Metals, Stocks, Stock Indexes, Bonds, Oil, Other Commodities

Yes

Scalping:

Deposit Methods:

VISA, MasterCard, Local Bank Transfers, Maestro

Withdrawal Methods:

VISA, MasterCard, Local Bank Transfers, Maestro

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Trading FX or CFDs on leverage is high risk and your losses could exceed deposits.

Forex.com Review 2020

Summary

Recommended for forex traders looking for low fees and great research tools

Forex.com is a global FX and CFD broker established in 2001. Forex.com is the brand name of GAIN Capital, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is regulated by several financial authorities, including the top-tier Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK or the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Forex.com is considered safe because it has a long track record, is regulated by top-tier financial authorities, and its parent company is listed on a stock exchange.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Forex.com pros and cons

Forex.com provides everything you need for forex trading: low forex fees, many currency pairs, and lots of technical research tools.

At the same time, it lacks some popular asset classes, such as real stocks or bonds. Stock CFD fees are high, and the desktop trading platform is not user-friendly.

Pros	Cons
• Low forex fees	• Limited product portfolio
• Great variety of currency pairs	• High stock CFD fees
• Diverse technical research tools	• Non-user-friendly desktop platform

Forex.com main features and highlights

��️ Country of regulation	UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Cayman Islands
�� Trading fees class	Low
�� Inactivity fee charged	Yes
�� Withdrawal fee amount	$0
�� Minimum deposit	$50
�� Time to open an account	1-3 days
�� Deposit with credit card	Available
�� Depositing with electronic wallet	Available
�� Number of base currencies supported	7
�� Demo account provided	Yes
��️ Products offered	Forex, CFD, Crypto

Gergely Korpos

Author of this review

Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology

Forex.com review
Fees

Forex.com has low fees for forex trades and stock index CFDs. On the other hand, stock CFD fees are high and there is an inactivity fee.

Pros	Cons
• Low forex fees	• Inactivity fee
• No withdrawal fee	• High stock CFD fees
• Low stock index CFD fees

Forex.com fees snapshot

Assets	Fee level	Fee terms
EURUSD	Low	The fees are built into spread, 1.3 pips is the average spread cost.
GBPUSD	Low	The fees are built into spread, 2.4 pips is the average spread cost.
S&P 500 CFD	Low	The fees are built into spread, 0.4 is the average spread cost.
Inactivity fee	Low	£/$/€ 15 per month after one year of inactivity

How we ranked fees

We ranked Forex.com’s fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

To get things rolling, let’s go over some lingo related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees, and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates, and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

In the sections below, you will find the most relevant fees of Forex.com for each asset class. For example, in the case of forex and stock index trading spreads, commissions and financing rates are the most important fees.

We compared Forex.com’s fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Oanda and Interactive Brokers. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Forex.com alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Forex.com, let’s start with the trading fees.

Forex.com trading fees

Forex.com trading fees are low.

We know it’s hard to compare trading fees for forex brokers. So what we did was we compared brokers by calculating all the fees of a typical trade for selected products.

We picked popular instruments within each asset class usually offered by forex brokers:

• Forex: EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, EURCHF, and EURGBP
• Stock index CFDs: SPX and EUSTX50

A typical trade involves buying a leveraged product, holding it for one week and then selling it. For volume, we chose a $20,000 position for forex and a $2,000 position for stock index and stock CFD transactions. The leverage we used was:

• 30:1 for forex
• 20:1 for stock index CFDs

These catch-all benchmark fees include spreads, commissions and financing costs for all brokers. Let’s see the verdict for Forex.com fees.

Forex fees

Forex.com forex fees are low, below those of its closest competitors.

Forex.com forex benchmark fees of a $20,000 30:1 long position held for one week

Forex.com	Oanda	Interactive Brokers
EURUSD benchmark fee	$12.6	$15.9	$17.9
GBPUSD benchmark fee	$10.5	$11.9	$13.6
AUDUSD benchmark fee	$12.0	$8.3	$12.0
EURCHF benchmark fee	$4.9	$7.1	$7.1
EURGBP benchmark fee	$9.9	$10.7	$13.0

Forex fees are built into spreads.

CFD fees

Forex.com has low stock index CFD fees but high stock CFD fees.

Forex.com CFD fees for a $2,000 long position held for one week

Forex.com	Oanda	Interactive Brokers
S&P 500 CFD benchmark fee	$1.9	$1.0	$3.6
Europe 50 CFD benchmark fee	$1.6	$0.9	$2.9
Apple CFD benchmark fee	$21.8	–	$3.5
Vodafone CFD benchmark fee	$26.0	–	$8.2

Stock index CFD fees are built into spreads, while stock CFD fees are charged via commission.

Forex.com stock CFD fee

Market	Commission	Minimum fee
US stocks	$0.018 per share	$10
UK stocks	0.08% of the trade value	£10

Non-trading fees

Forex.com’s non-trading fees are average overall. It doesn’t charge withdrawal or account fees, but a $15 monthly fee is levied after one year of inactivity.

Forex.com non-trading fees

Forex.com	Oanda	Interactive Brokers
Account fee	No	No	No
Inactivity fee	Yes	Yes	Yes
Deposit fee	$0	$0	$0
Withdrawal fee	$0	$0	$0

Forex.com review
Account opening

Forex.com’s account opening is seamless and fully digital, with a low minimum deposit. On the other hand, account verification takes

2 business days, which is not the fastest on the market.

Pros	Cons
• Fully digital	• Relatively slow account verification
• Low minimum deposit
• User-friendly

Can you open an account?

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Forex.com accepts customers from most countries, including the US. Notable exceptions include Hong Kong and New Zealand.

What is the minimum deposit at Forex.com?

The required Forex.com minimum deposit is $50 . This is a low amount as there are other brokers that require a minimum of $2,000 or more.

Account types

Forex.com provides three account types, which differ in their pricing structure and in the trading platforms available.

Forex.com account types

Account types	Pricing	Trading platforms
Forex.com account	Higher spread and no commission	Forex.com’s own platforms
MetaTrader account	Higher spread and no commission	MT4
DMA account	Lower spread and commission of $2 per lot per trade	Forex.com’s own platforms

When it comes to account ownership, Forex.com has additional options:

• Individual – owned by an individual
• Joint – owned by two or more individuals
• Corporate – owned by a legal entity

How to open your account

Forex.com has a straightforward and fully digital account opening process. Online registration takes only 10-15 minutes. Our account was verified in 2 business days, which is a bit slower than at some other brokers.

It takes four steps to open a Forex.com account:

1. Choose whether you want to use Forex.com’s own trading platform or MetaTrader 4, a third-party trading platform.
2. Fill in your personal and financial information.
3. Answer a couple of questions relating to your financial knowledge and trading history.
4. Verify your identity and residency. You can upload a national ID card, passport or driver’s license to verify your identity. Utility bills and bank statements are accepted as proof of residency.

We ran into some problems during account verification. Forex.com rejected the uploaded proof of residency but did not tell us the reason. We think they should give more information when something goes wrong.

Forex.com review
Deposit and withdrawal

Forex.com provides multiple options for deposit and withdrawal, all free of charge. However, withdrawal is not possible with some credit cards.

Pros	Cons
• Credit/Debit card available	• Problem with credit card withdrawal
• Free withdrawal
• No deposit fee

Account base currencies

At Forex.com, you can choose from 7 base currencies: EUR, GBP, USD, AUD, CAD, CHF, JPY .

Base currencies at Forex.com vs similar brokers

Forex.com	Oanda	Interactive Brokers
Number of base currencies	7	9	19

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your account base currency, you don’t have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. Revolut or Transferwise both offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Deposit fees and options

Forex.com charges no deposit fees. Besides bank transfer, you can use credit/debit cards and PayPal for deposit.

Forex.com deposit options

Forex.com	Oanda	Interactive Brokers
Bank transfer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Credit/Debit card	Yes	Yes	No
Electronic wallets	Yes	Yes	No

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant.You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

Forex.com withdrawal fees and options

Withdrawal at Forex.com is free of charge. Methods for withdrawal are the same as for deposits.

Forex.com withdrawal fees and options

Forex.com	Oanda	Interactive Brokers
Bank Transfer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Credit/Debit card	Yes	No	No
Electronic wallets	Yes	No	No
Withdrawal fee	$0	$0	$0

How long does it take to withdraw money from Forex.com? Bank transfers can take 2-3 business days, while credit/debit card withdrawal can take longer, up to 5 business days.

When we tested withdrawal, it took several weeks because we had a problem with credit card withdrawal. The reason for the problem was that Forex.com can’t send money to some MasterCard and Visa credit cards. Instead of credit cards, we had to withdraw via bank transfer, but before doing so, customer service had to add and approve our bank account. It would be great to know in advance which cards are accepted for withdrawal and which are not.

How do you withdraw money from Forex.com?

• Log in to ‘MyAccount’
• Click on ‘Funding’ and then select ‘Withdraw’
• Fill in the required amount
• Confirm your withdrawal

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Forex.com review
Web trading platform

Forex.com’s web trading platform is user-friendly and extremely customizable, with lots of order types. On the negative side, there is no two-step login and we found some bugs.

Pros	Cons
• User-friendly	• No two-step (safer) login
• Good customizability (for charts, workspace)
• Good variety of order types

Forex.com platforms to choose from

Trading platform	Score	Available
Web	4.3 / 5 stars	Yes
Mobile	4.3 / 5 stars	Yes
Desktop	3.0 / 5 stars	Yes

Forex.com has two web trading platforms, Web Trader and MetaTrader 4. We tested Web Trader because it is Forex.com’s own platform, while MetaTrader 4 is provided by a third party.

Web Trader is available only in English.

Look and feel

Forex.com’s web trading platform is user-friendly and looks great.

It is extremely customizable. You can easily add, remove, or change the size and position of tabs to create your own unique trading platform. It also lets you pick between a light or dark theme and between “one-click” or “two-click” trading.

Login and security

Forex.com provides one-step login. Two-step authentication would be safer here.

Search functions

The web trading platform has good search functions. You can search by typing the name of the product you’re looking for or browsing a categorized product list.

Placing orders

You can use many order types, including some more sophisticated ones:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop-loss
• Trailing stop
• One-cancels-the-other (OCO)

If you are not familiar with basic order types, read this overview.

There are also several order terms available:

• Good till canceled (GTC)
• Good till end of the day (GTD)
• Good till time (GTT)

Alerts and notifications

The alert function lets you know when an asset reaches a price target. You also get a notification when your orders get fulfilled. This is a push notification, available on both web and mobile platforms. You can easily set alerts and notifications.

Portfolio and fee reports

Forex.com has clear portfolio and fee reports. You can find these under the ‘Reports’ tab and download them in PDF, XLS, XML and CSV.

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Forex.com review
Mobile trading platform

Forex.com’s mobile trading platform looks nice and is easy to use. The search function is also great. However, there is no two-step login.

Pros	Cons
• User-friendly	• No two-step (safer) login
• Good search function
• Good variety of order types

Similarly to the web trading platform, Forex.com provides two mobile trading platforms: Forex.com’s own, and MetaTrader 4’s mobile trading platform. Both trading platforms are available on iOS and Android. In this review, we tested Forex.com’s own trading platform on Android.

Look and feel

The Forex.com mobile trading platform is user-friendly and well designed. However, features were sometimes quite slow to load.

Login and security

Forex.com provides only one-step login.

You can’t log in using biometric authentication. Offering this feature would make the login process more convenient.

Search functions

Search functions are good. You can search by typing the name of the asset you’re looking for or browse product categories.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types:

However, we didn’t find an option to set order time limits.

Alerts and notifications

You can easily set price alerts on the Forex.com mobile platform.

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Forex.com review
Desktop trading platform

Forex.com’s desktop platform has the same functions as the web trading platform but lags behind in user-friendliness.

Pros	Cons
• Clear fee report	• Not user-friendly
• Good customizability (for charts, workspace)	• No two-step (safer) login
• Good variety of order types	• Poor design

Forex.com offers two desktop platforms, the Advanced Trading Platform and MetaTrader 4. Once again, we tested the Advanced Trading Platform as this is Forex.com’s own platform, while MetaTrader 4 is a third-party platform.

Forex.com’s desktop trading platform has the same functionality as the web trading platform. For example, you can use the same order types or price alerts.

On the downside, the desktop trading platform is less user-friendly and the design feels outdated. It was hard to navigate the platform and it felt too crammed with functions.

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Forex.com review
Markets and products

At Forex.com, you can only trade with forex, CFDs and cryptos. Other asset classes, like real stocks or funds, are not available.

Forex.com is a forex broker, also offering some CFDs. To learn more about CFDs read our CFD trading tips.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Forex.com provides a great number of currency pairs and cryptocurrencies. The stock index, ETF and commodity CFD selections are also great. The stock CFD lineup is relatively thin, though.

Forex.com product selection

Forex.com	Oanda	Interactive Brokers
Currency pairs (#)	84	71	105
Stock index CFDs (#)	17	16	13
Stock CFDs (#)	270	–	7,100
ETF CFDs (#)	26	–	–
Commodity CFDs (#)	26	31	–
Cryptos (#)	8	–	2

You can change the default leverage level of the products, which is great.

Changing the leverage manually is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. For example, instead of trading with 5:1 leverage, you can set it to 2:1 in the case of stock CFDs. Be careful with forex and CFD trading, since the preset leverage levels are high, putting you at a high risk of losing your money.

Forex.com review
Research

Forex.com has great and diverse research functions. It provides good charting tools, trading tips based on technical analysis, and high-quality market reports. On the other hand, it lacks fundamental data.

Pros	Cons
• Good interactive chart	• No fundamental data available
• Trading ideas
• High-quality market reports

You can find Forex.com’s research tools on its trading platforms or on the website under ‘Market Analysis’.

We ran into some bugs on the trading platform during our test. For example, when we opened Autochartist, it didn’t work.

Trading ideas

Forex.com also provides trading ideas based on technical analysis. You can find them on the platform if you click ‘Trading Central’.

Fundamental data

Forex.com doesn’t provide fundamental data.

Charting

Forex.com has great charting tools. You can easily edit and save your charts. There are

80 technical indicators and many editing tools, such as Fibonacci retracement or trendlines.

News feed

Forex.com doesn’t have news feeds.

On the other hand, there is an economic calendar, which lists upcoming macro events. When you select an event, you can view a short summary and check historical data.

You can also read market analysis written by Forex.com’s research team. You can find these articles under the ‘Market Analysis’ tab. We liked how news articles can be filtered based on various criteria.

Forex.com review
Customer service

Forex.com has great customer service on the phone. Finding live chat is a bit tricky, but responses are relevant and fast. On the negative side, email support is slow and answers aren’t always satisfactory.

Pros	Cons
• Live chat	• No 24/7 support
• Great telephone support	• Poor email support
• 24-hour support Sunday to Friday

You can contact Forex.com via:

We were really satisfied with Forex.com’s phone support. They answered the phone instantly, and we got relevant answers.

If you prefer using live chat, click ‘Chat’. It opens a chatbot, which can answer some basic questions, like “How can I deposit?”. It’s a bit more tricky if you want to talk to a real person. You have to type ‘agent’, after which the chatbot offers to connect you with a sales or support agent.

Email response time is slow; during our test, it took 4 business days to receive a reply. The answers were not fully helpful as we merely got links to FAQ pages.

Forex.com’s customer service is not fully 24/7, though it is available 24 hours a day from Sunday to Friday.

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Forex.com review
Education

Forex.com does a great job in education, offering many ways to learn.

Pros	Cons
• Demo account	• No webinars
• Trading platform tutorial
• Educational videos

At Forex.com you can learn in the following ways:

• Demo account
• Platform tutorial videos
• General educational videos
• Quality educational articles
• Trading glossary
• Trading knowledge quiz

We liked the quality and structuring of the videos. You can choose from different topics, like fundamental analysis or risk management.

The quiz and trading glossary are unique educational tools. We found them really fun and useful.

The only thing we missed was webinars, as they are the best platform for asking trading professionals directly.

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Forex.com review
Safety

Forex.com is regulated by many financial authorities, including the top-tier FCA. Its parent company, GAIN Capital is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Pros	Cons
• Majority of clients belong to a top-tier financial authority	None
• High level of investor protection
• Parent company listed on stock exchange

Is Forex.com regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by several financial authorities globally, such as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and National Futures Association (NFA).

Is Forex.com safe?

To be certain, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• what the background of the broker is

How you are protected

Forex.com operates several subsidiaries worldwide; which of these will serve you depends on your residency. The investor protection amount you’re eligible for depends on the country where the subsidiary serving you is located.

For example, if you are from the UK, you will sign up with GAIN Capital UK Ltd and will be eligible for investor protection of £85,000. GAIN Capital UK Ltd is regulated by the FCA, the UK regulator.

Not all investments are protected by SIPC. In general, SIPC covers notes, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other investment company shares, and other registered securities. It does not cover instruments such as unregistered investment contracts, unregistered limited partnerships, fixed annuity contracts, currency, and interests in gold, silver, or other commodity futures contracts or commodity options.

Forex.com investor protection

Futures Commission Merchant (FCM)

Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED)

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

National Futures Association (NFA)

Country of clients	Protection amount	Regulator	Legal entity
EEA	£85,000	Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)	GAIN Capital UK Ltd.
USA	No protection	GAIN Capital Group LLC
Canada	$1,000,000	Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)	GAIN Capital – FOREX.com Canada Limited
Japan	No protection	Japanese Financial Services Authority (FSA)	Gain Capital Japan Co.
All other clients	No protection	Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA)	GAIN Global Markets Inc.

Forex.com provides negative balance protection for clients belonging to GAIN Capital UK Ltd. for forex spot and CFD trading, but only for retail clients from the European Union. Professional and non-EU clients are not covered with any negative balance protection.

Background

Forex.com is a brand of GAIN Capital, a US-based investment company. This is important as a strong parent company lowers the chance that the company will go bust.

GAIN Capital is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It is a big plus for safety as Forex.com releases financial statements regularly and in a transparent manner.

Forex.com was established in 2001. The longer the track record of a broker, the more proof we have that it has successfully weathered previous financial crises.

Having a parent company listed on a stock exchange, providing financial statements, and being regulated by top-tier authorities are all great markers of Forex.com’s safety.

Forex.com review
Bottom line

Forex.com is a great forex broker regulated by several financial authorities, such as the UK FCA or the US CFTC.

On the positive side, it has low forex fees, many tradable currency pairs, and high-quality research tools.

It has some drawbacks though. Popular assets, like real stocks or bonds, are not provided. Stock CFD fees are quite high, and the desktop platform is not easy to use.

Since no withdrawal fee or inactivity fee kicks in until after one year, feel free to try Forex.com today.

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

FOREX.com Review

FOREX.com delivers an excellent trading experience for forex and CFDs traders across the globe. With competitive pricing, full-feature trading platforms, comprehensive market research, and a robust mobile app, FOREX.com caters to traders of all experience levels.

Top Takeaways for 2020

After spending five months testing 30 of the best forex brokers for our 4th Annual Review, here are our top findings on FOREX.com:

• FOREX.com is publicly-traded and regulated in four tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for forex and CFDs trading.
• FOREX.com earned Best in Class (top 7) awards for numerous categories in 2020, including Offering of Investments, Commissions & Fees, Education, Professional Trading, Crypto Trading, Ease of Use, and Overall. All in all, our testing found FOREX.com to be a great option for all trader types.
• Pricing at FOREX.com is easy to understand, and competitive, thanks to a tiered discounts approach based on your total monthly trading volume. FOREX.com also offers tight spreads on cryptocurrency CFDs.

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Overall Summary

Feature	FOREX.com
Overall	4.5 Stars
Trust Score	93
Offering of Investments	5 Stars
Commissions & Fees	4 Stars
Platform & Tools	4 Stars
Research	4.5 Stars
Mobile Trading	4 Stars
Customer Service	4 Stars
Education	4 Stars

Is FOREX.com Safe?

FOREX.com is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 93 out of 99. FOREX.com is publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by four tier-1 regulators (high trust), zero tier-2 regulators (average trust), and one tier-3 regulators (low trust). City Index is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Learn more about Trust Score.

Feature	FOREX.com
Year Founded	1999
Publicly Traded (Listed)	Yes
Bank	No
Tier-1 Licenses	4
Tier-2 Licenses	0
Tier-3 Licenses	1
Trust Score	93

Offering of Investments

FOREX.com offers over 4,500 CFD instruments on its flagship platforms, including Web Trading and Advantage Trader web and desktop, alongside over 500 symbols on MetaTrader5 (MT5).

Feature	FOREX.com
Forex: Spot Trading	Yes
Currency Pairs (Total Forex pairs)	91
CFDs – Total Offered	4500
Social Trading / Copy-Trading	No
Cryptocurrency traded as actual	No
Cryptocurrency traded as CFD	Yes

Commissions & Fees

Overall, FOREX.com’s pricing structure is competitive and easy to understand, helping the broker rank highly in our assessment.

Spreads comparison: Typical spreads for MetaTrader platform users were 1.3 pips on the EUR/USD using October 2020 data from FOREX.com. The table below shows an average spread of 1 pip measured during Q3 2020 for the EUR/USD, applicable to the broker’s non-MT4 platforms. Average spreads at FOREX.com vary only slightly when comparing the broker’s US offering with its pricing available outside the US to the rest of the world.

Active Trader program rebates: For high volume traders, FOREX.com offers an Active Trader program with five tiers of pricing. Level one starts with typical spreads of 1.2 pips on the EUR/USD for traders who have a balance of least $10,000. Spreads are further reduced with each subsequent level as traders surpass specific month-to-date (MTD) trading volume thresholds. For example, level five ($500 million in MTD volume) brings spreads down to as low as 0.84 pips on the EUR/USD pair. Spreads are effective spreads after clients are rebated.

Dealer execution: FOREX.com is a market maker, which means it provides dealer execution, and its ability to execute a trade will not rely on a third party the way an agency broker does. Therefore, trading with FOREX.com can result in potentially better dealer-execution in challenging market conditions, compared to an agency broker. Note: The broker also offers agency execution (see below).

Market execution (In the US only): FOREX.com offers a new Direct Market Access (DMA) account and execution method for its US offering, as well as its CIMA and UK services. As part of this DMA account type, the execution-style is agency-based, and the broker only charges a commission. This account type also provides greater discounts for the most active traders, compared to FOREX.com’s Active Trader program.

Feature	FOREX.com
Minimum Initial Deposit	$50.00
Average Spread EUR/USD – Standard	1 (as of Q3 19)
All-in Cost EUR/USD – Active	0.7 (as of Q3 18)
Active Trader or VIP Discounts	Yes

Platforms & Tools

FOREX.com provides forex traders everything they need, and more, to trade effectively.

Advanced Trading: FOREX.com’s flagship platform, Advanced Trading, is best suited for seasoned traders and comes with a robust charting package loaded with a large selection of technical indicators (139 total) and drawing tools. Technical Analysis tools include automated technical analysis from Autochartist, which scans the markets for completed and emerging patterns and trade ideas. Also, more advanced traders can develop automated trading systems from the Automated Trading Center.

Web trading: Best suited for casual traders, FOREX.com’s Web Trading platform makes it easy to browse through markets, conduct research, analyze charts via Trading Central, and place trades. FOREX.com’s alternative web platform is a white-labeled version of TradingView, a popular charting web app for technical analysis, which comes with 67 indicators. While TradingView shines if you are focused solely on charting, the Web Trading platform would be my preferred choice between the two browser-based platforms at FOREX.com.

MetaTrader: While Forex.com’s platform suite is already robust and finished Best in Class (top 7) in our testing, the broker also offers the complete MetaTrader suite, including both MT4 and MT5.

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Research

FOREX.com does a great job in centralizing its research within the Advanced Trading platform and keeping it well organized for traders to access easily. Multiple news channels, automated pattern-recognition modules from Trading Central, real-time trade signals and analysis tools from Autochartist and Recognia and blog updates from FOREX.com’s global research team are all available. Furthermore, FOREX.com offers a premium package with trading signals from Faraday research, which runs £720 per annum.

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Mobile Trading

FOREX.com’s AdvantageFX mobile app ranks highly compared to the best mobile apps in the forex industry thanks to clean navigation and a host of trading features.

Mobile research: Several of the highlight features include an economic calendar, integrated research, and signals from Trading Central, alerts, market updates, and news, and an easy way to scroll between prices, charts, and open positions. Trading and managing positions within the mobile app are straightforward thanks to its fluid user interface and minimalist design.

Mobile charting: The app also automatically syncs watch lists and includes easy-to-use charts despite having only seven indicators and ten drawing tools. Nonetheless, I was glad to find that indicators and drawing tools added in landscape mode save upon exiting the app.

MetaTrader: For traders who prefer MetaTrader, the MT4 and MT5 apps are also available.

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Customer Service

To score Customer Service, ForexBrokers.com partnered with customer experience research group Customerwise to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the UK. For our 2020 Review, 229 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks.

Results

• Average Connection Time: 1 – 2 minutes
• Average Net Promoter Score: 7.2 / 10
• Average Professionalism Score: 7.4 / 10
• Overall Score: 7.60 / 10
• Ranking: 14 th (22 brokers)

Final Thoughts

FOREX.com is a trusted forex broker that shines thanks to its excellent offering of platforms, tools, research, and competitive pricing. While customer service isn’t award-winning, FOREX.com delivers a great experience to forex traders of all experience levels. FOREX.com finished Best in Class across seven key categories, including Overall in 2020.

About FOREX.com

Founded in 1999, FOREX.com is part of GAIN Capital Holdings (NYSE: GCAP), which through its trading names and subsidiaries, including the City Index brand, today operates in multiple countries and with licenses in several major regulatory hubs, including the US, UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia.

Through its international offices, the GAIN Capital group employs over 800 staff and caters to over 200,000 retail and institutional clients. As an early pioneer in offering online forex trading in the US, today, FOREX.com is one of the largest retail FX brokers globally, with over $1.3 billion in assets as of Q2 2020, and over 71,000 active clients as of August 2020. Read more on Wikipedia about FOREX.com.

FOREX.com Trading Features

Feature	FOREX.com
Virtual Trading (Demo)	Yes
Proprietary Platform	Yes
Desktop Platform (Windows)	Yes
Web Platform	Yes
Social Trading / Copy-Trading	No
MetaTrader 4 (MT4)	Yes
MetaTrader 5 (MT5)	Yes
cTrader	No
Charting – Indicators / Studies (Total)	139
Charting – Drawing Tools (Total)	25
Charting – Trade From Chart	Yes
Watchlists – Total Fields	18
Order Type – Trailing Stop	Yes

FOREX.com Research Features

Feature	FOREX.com
Daily Market Commentary	Yes
Forex News (Top-Tier Sources)	Yes
Weekly Webinars	Yes
AutoChartist	Yes
Trading Central (Recognia)	Yes
Delkos Research	Yes
Social Sentiment – Currency Pairs	Yes
Economic Calendar	Yes

FOREX.com Mobile App Features

Feature	FOREX.com
Android App	Yes
Apple iOS App	Yes
Trading – Forex	Yes
Trading – CFDs	Yes
Alerts – Basic Fields	Yes
Watch List	Yes
Watch List Syncing	Yes
Charting – Indicators / Studies	7
Charting – Draw Trend Lines	Yes
Charting – Trend Lines Moveable	Yes
Charting – Multiple Time Frames	Yes
Charting – Drawings Autosave	Yes
Forex Calendar	Yes

2020 Review Methodology

For our 2020 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 30 international forex brokers over a five month time period. Each broker was graded on 105 different variables and, in total, over 50,000 words of research were produced.

While encouraged, broker participation was optional. Each broker had the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile and provide executive time (live in person or over the web) for an annual update meeting.

All data submitted by brokers is hand-checked for accuracy. Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than 1% each year, providing site visitors quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.

Forex Risk Disclaimer

“There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses.” Learn more.