Best CFD brokers in Australia in 2019

To find the best CFD broker in Australia, we went ahead and did the research for you. After testing, analyzing and comparing 56 brokers, 4 made it to the top in Australia. We highly recommend all 4 to you. And now, without further ado...

The top 4 picks for the best CFD brokers of 2019 for citizens in Australia:

1. eToro is the number one CFD broker in 2019. Free stock and ETF trading in the EU. Seamless account opening. Social trading experience.
2. IG, place two. Easy-to-use web trading platform. Helpful and reliable customer service. Great deposit and withdrawal tools.
3. Plus500 is placed number three. Easy to use platform. Low spreads. Listed on AIM section of the London Stock Exchange.
4. City Index, numero quatro. Low forex fees. Diverse and high-quality research tools. Great customer support.

All 4 brokers are considered safe. They are regulated by top-tier financial regulators.

What makes a good CFD broker? We think fair fees. They should offer a lot of CFDs and need to have a great platform. It must be easy to open an account and deposit. Easy to list, but hard to figure it out. We are testing brokers along with ~100 criteria with real accounts and real money. We know what's up.

Boring, but important stuff: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. If you don't have a clue what a CFD is, start by reading more about CFD trading.

Not sure which broker? For a tailored recommendation, check out the broker finder tool. You can enter your country and it will show only the relevant brokers. Want more details? Compare brokers with this detailed comparison table.

And now, let's see the best CFD brokers for Australian citizens in 2019 one by one. Starting with the winner, eToro.

#1 Best CFD broker
eToro

Best social trading

eToro is a well-known fintech startup, an Israeli social trading broker established in 2007. eToro serves UK clients by an FCA regulated entity and Australians by an Australian entity. All other customers are served by a Cypriot entity. eToro is not listed on any exchange, does not disclose its annual report on its site and does not have a bank parent. It is also one of the 5 best trading platforms for Europeans.

eToro is considered safe because it's UK arm is regulated by a top tier regulator and it is a well-known fintech startup.

eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers primarily CFDs, but you can also invest in stocks and crypto assets. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 66% 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.

Recommended for traders and those interested in social trading (copying other traders’ trades)

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Fees 4 stars

eToro offers free stock trading in Europe and has low fees for non-EU clients. On the negative side, the non-trading fees and financing rates are high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position sizes: $2k for stocks, and $20k for FX

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Markets and products 3 stars

At eToro you can trade with CFDs and forex. There are also real stocks, ETFs, and many cryptos. It also offers innovative services, like social trading or CopyPortfolio.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Account opening 5 stars

Account opening is enjoyable and super fast.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Deposit and withdrawal 4 stars

It is easy to deposit with a lot of options, including credit cards. However, there is a withdrawal fee, and only USD accounts are available.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Web trading platform 4 stars

eToro’s web trading platform is nice looking and easy-to-use. Getting your fee report is a bit of a pain.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 eToro
Verdict

When looking back, eToro was a bit unreliable in 2017 because of the huge demand for cryptos. It had problems in customer support and the platform sometimes froze. In our latest test eToro improved.

On the plus side, eToro has zero-commission stock trading in Europe. The account opening is really fast and seamless. It has also a lot of innovative features, like social trading.

It has some drawbacks though. Customer service was a letdown, the platform did not work on multiple occasions. Also, it has a tight product range which includes stocks and CFDs. Non-trading fees are high.

To sum up, we recommend eToro for social trading and cheap stock trading.

Risk disclaimer

eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers both investing in stocks and cryptoassets, as well as trading CFD assets.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 66% 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.

Cryptoassets are volatile instruments which can fluctuate widely in a very short timeframe and therefore are not appropriate for all investors. Other than via CFDs, trading cryptoassets is unregulated and therefore is not supervised by any EU regulatory framework.

Past performance is not an indication of future results.

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66% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 Best CFD broker
IG

Best FX broker

IG was established in the UK in 1974 and is one of the biggest CFD providers in the world. It is regulated by several bodies globally, including top-tier authorities like the FCA. IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

IG is considered safe because it is listed on a stock exchange, discloses its financials, and is overseen by top-tier regulators.

IG is primarily a CFD broker. If you are from the US, you can only trade with forex. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 75% 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. CFDs are not provided for US clients. Forex trading involves risk. Losses can exceed deposits.

Recommended for traders with any experience level aiming for a great and easy-to-use trading platform

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 IG
Fees 2 stars

IG's trading fees are high and non-trading fees are average. Its financing rate is one of the best.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position sizes: $2k for stocks, and $20k for FX

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 IG
Markets and products 3 stars

At IG, most clients can only trade with CFDs, forex and options. There are literally thousands of CFDs available to trade. The UK and some other clients can also trade with shares.

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 IG
Account opening 4 stars

The account opening process is fast, user-friendly, and fully digital. On the other hand, the sales team is quite pushy.

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 IG
Deposit and withdrawal 5 stars

You have several options to transfer money. The transfer process is user-friendly and fast.

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 IG
Web trading platform 5 stars

IG's web platform is great. It is easy to use, has all necessary functions and can be customized. Even first-time users can familiarize themselves with it instantly.

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 IG
Verdict

IG is one of the biggest and most reliable CFD brokers. It is regulated by several financial authorities around the world. IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

IG has the best web trading platform Brokerchooser tested. Its customer service is professional and relevant. The deposit and withdrawal conditions are also great.

The biggest drawback is the fee structure. IG is quite pricey, especially when you trade with lower amounts. IG's product portfolio is limited to forex, CFDs and options; however, in the UK and some other countries, stocks are also available. US clients can trade only with forex.

It is quite easy to test IG's first-class trading platform since there is no minimum funding for bank transfer and you can easily open a demo account. 

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Best CFD broker
Plus500

Plus500 is a CFD broker, established in Israel. It is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. Plus500 subsidiaries are authorized and regulated by different regulators, including top-tier regulators like the FCA from the UK.

Plus500 is considered safe because it is listed on a stock exchange, discloses its financials, and is regulated by top-tier regulators.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76.4% 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.

Daytraders!: At Plus500 scalping is defined as "A trading strategy where a significant portion of the customer's positions are opened and closed by him/her within 2 minutes." If Plus500 believes you were following this strategy, your account might be blocked and closed. Therefore, if you plan to execute trades within 2 minutes, Plus500 is not your broker

 

Recommended for experienced traders looking for an easy-to-use platform, with great user experience.

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76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Plus500
Fees 4 stars

Plus500 has low trading fees and average non-trading fees. Financing rates are very high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position sizes: $2k for stocks, and $20k for FX

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76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Plus500
Markets and products 2 stars

At Plus500 you can trade only with CFDs and forex. There are a lot CFDs, you can choose from almost 2,000.

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76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Plus500
Account opening 5 stars

Plus500 account opening is seamless, fast and fully digital. You can open your trading account within a day.

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76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Plus500
Deposit and withdrawal 5 stars

Plus500's deposit and withdrawal are both great. You have many options, the process is easy-to-do and usually free of charge.

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76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Plus500
Web trading platform 4 stars

Plus500 trading platform is very easy-to-use and also looks great. On the flip side, it cannot be customized. 

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76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Plus500
Verdict

Plus500 is a good broker. It is for traders aware of the risks of CFD trading.

Is plus 500 safe? It is considered safe because it is listed on the London Stock Exchange and regulated by the FCA. If you are not from the UK, you will be most likely served by Plus500 Cyprus, and hence the Cypriot investor protection will apply.

Daytraders! At Plus500 scalping is defined as "A trading strategy where a significant portion of the customer's positions are opened and closed by him/her within 2 minutes." If Plus500 believes you were following this strategy, your account might be blocked and closed. So if you plan to execute trades within 2 minutes, Plus500 is not your broker.

On the bright side, Plus500 platform is easy-to-use with a great user experience. Even the first time user can navigate the app with ease. Spreads are competitive, but there are really high financing rates. Therefore, fees can be really high. For this fee level, some research tools would have been nice. 

As there is no minimum balance, no withdrawal fee above $100, withdrawal and inactivity fee only kicks in after three months, feel free to try it out.

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76.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Best CFD broker
City Index

City Index was founded in 1983 and it is a Global CFD and FX broker. It is regulated by top-tier regulators, like the UK FCA and the Australian ASIC.

City Index is considered safe because it has a long track record, its parent company is listed on stock exchange, and is regulated by top-tier regulators.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 70% 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.

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

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 City Index
Fees 3 stars

City Index has average trading and non-trading fees. Its financing rates are low.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position sizes: $2k for stocks, and $20k for FX

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 City Index
Markets and products 2 stars

At City Index, you can trade only with CFDs, forex, and cryptos.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 City Index
Account opening 4 stars

City Index account opening is fully digital and there is no minimum deposit. But, it can take more days.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 City Index
Deposit and withdrawal 4 stars

City Index deposit and withdrawal are free and user-friendly. On the flip side, electronic wallets are missing and you cannot select your account currency.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 City Index
Web trading platform 4 stars

City Index web trading platform is extremely customizable. It also has a lot of order types. On the flip side, there is no two-step login.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 City Index
Verdict

In our City Index review, we tested City Index thoroughly and here is the verdict. It is an ok broker, especially if you want to concentrate on CFD and forex trading. 

On the bright side, it has low forex fees, high-quality research tools, and great customer support.

It has some drawbacks though. The CFD fees are quite high, the product portfolio is limited, and the desktop platform is not easy-to-use.

As there is no minimum balance, no withdrawal fee and inactivity fee only kicks in after one year, feel free to try it out.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Best CFD brokers
What makes a good CFD broker?

Trading with CFDs became really popular in the last decade. Keeping your eyes on important criteria like fees or number of CFDs helps you to find the best CFD broker for you.

At Brokerchooser we test online brokers along ~100 criteria, with a real account and real money. Not to overwhelm you we list the five most important criteria.

The 5 most important criteria for CFD brokers are:

Best CFD brokers
CFD broker fees

Fees, fees, and fees. We bet this is on top of your mind when you want to select the best CFD broker. Let's see how we checked.

It is tough to compare CFD broker fees, but we are here to help. You need to calculate with two fee categories: trading-related fees and non-trading fees.

Trading-related fees

With regards to the trading-related fees, brokers can charge commissions, spreads and overnight fees. To make your life easier we calculated all fees for real-life scenarios. So, you can compare the fees. We took

• US equity - Apple share CFD
• European equity - Vodafone share CFD.
• forex - EURUSD

We assumed opening a position, holding it for a week, and closing it. Apple and Vodafone positions are $2,000 and the EURUSD is $20,000. These real-life assumptions make CFD fees comparable.

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Best CFD brokers
CFD brokers explained

CFDs are derivatives, you can easily trade with a wide range of products, but it is leveraged, so it is risky.

CFDs are derivatives: you bet on price movements

With CFDs, you can gamble on whether asset prices will go up or down without buying the stock. Let's say you want to profit from Microsoft's stock price going up. At an online stockbroker, you would buy the Microsoft stock. At a CFD broker, you can instead bet directly on the stock price going up. However, CFDs are much like knives: could be very useful, but if no idea how to use one, you can cut yourself.

CFDs are an easy way to reach a lot of markets with leverage

Why on earth is this good for you? Well, there are three advantages:

• 1, You can make bets on all kinds of products. E.g. if you wanted to trade with Turkish stocks, go ahead. This might not be possible with an online stockbroker. It is easier for a broker to provide a CFD than have access to the Turkish stock exchange.
• 2, The second advantage is leverage. The odds of your bet will be much larger than with buying the actual stock. It also comes with greater risk, therefore we recommend you to fully understand leverage before you invest.
• 3, Lastly, with CFDs, you can easily have a short position. That is a plus indeed.

To understand these advantages better, you can learn through CFD trading tips.

Not owning the underlying asset exposes you to additional risks

If you do not own the stock (or any other underlying asset), you are running a whole different risk which you need to understand before trading CFDs.

Let's say Bob has a Siemens stock and Janet is in a long Siemens CFD position, both with broker “Bust Broker Co.”. Bust Broker Co. goes bust. Bob's Siemens stock is in custody with his custody service provider, sooner or later he will be able to access it. Janet was in a long position, therefore she will be compensated only up to the investor protection scheme of the country. In most cases, this is up to €20,000.

Best CFD brokers
CFD regulations and security

You've probably heard of European Securities and Markets Authority's new regulation relating to CFDs and binary options. New measures clearly show how the European regulators want to secure retail investors from the gloomy side of the European retail brokerage industry.

Based on ESMA's research, around 80 to 95% of investors are losing their deposits and in many cases not purely due to their fault. One core problem is that the dealing desk brokers are gaining profit when their clients lose. If you don't know what this model looks like, a Financemagnates article explains that very well. Another problem is the limitless and uncontrolled marketing of deposit bonuses, cheap prices and messages promising easy ways of getting rich.

The new regulation will probably help to make the ratio better off. The measures and their explanations are the following:

• Limitation of leverage: it was not unusual that you could open a position with 400:1 leverage, but from now the possible maximum leverage will be 30:1 for major currency pairs. The limitation varies according to the underlying asset's volatility:
  • 30:1 for major currency pairs
  • 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold and major stock indices
  • 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major stock indices;
  • 5:1 for single stocks and any underlying not otherwise mentioned
  • 2:1 for cryptocurrencies
• Margin close out on a per account basis: if an account's total margin falls below 50% of the initially required margin, brokers must close out or more of your positions.
• Negative balance protection: you cannot lose more money than you invested in.
• Restriction on marketing and incentive tools: instead of promoting CFD trading by promising of getting rich in a short period, brokers have to clearly show what percentage of their customers are losing money.

Summing up, the stricter regulations mean that trading CFDs will become a nothing but a bedtime story for our kids? On the one hand, retail investors are protected by losing more than their deposit. On the other hand, handy investors can't multiply their profits by the use of high leverage. Altogether, we think CFD will keep its popularity as trading with that will become more transparent and safer.

Being part of a banking group or listed on an exchange should be your primary compass for the best CFD brokers

It is time to discuss how to make a well-established choice in today's changing landscape of CFD brokers. We prefer exchange-listed and/or banking licensed brokers. Why?

• Being listed on any developed exchange means additional regulations, strict and frequent audits and also the need for constant communication between the shareholders and other stakeholders. No wonder that only a small portion of retail brokers decides to exchange money for transparency.
• Banks are indisputably crucial building stones of any economy. Strict capital requirements, regulations and need for transparency is a must. Therefore any broker with a bank behind its back can be considered more reliable than the rest of the competition.

For more help on these points check out our online brokers' comparison table.

Compare protection amounts

Best CFD brokers
Bottom line

You saw the details, now let's zoom out. Here are the best CFD brokers of 2019 for citizens in Australia:

eToro is our winner, the best CFD broker for Australian citizens in 2019. Free stock and ETF trading in the EU. Seamless account opening. Social trading experience

All are considered safe, and a great choice. Do not forget, that CFDs are really risky. If you are experienced, pick your winner, and take the next step in your trading journey. Let us know what you think in the comment section.

Still unsure? Use the broker finder and find the best broker for you.

AUTHOR

Dan Sallai

CMO

My goal is to help people find our resourceful content when they need the most. I combine my 10+ years online marketing experience with the team's finance knowledge to reach that every day. On the side I'm paying bowling, tennis and enjoy spending great time with my children.

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