Best CFD brokers in Australia in 2022

To help you find the best CFD broker in Australia for 2022, we first selected 101 quality online brokers, then we checked and compared their CFD fees, product selection, deposit/withdrawal options and more. And now, without further ado...

Top picks for the best CFD brokers in 2022 for citizens in Australia:

1. eToro is the best CFD broker in Australia in 2022. Free stock and ETF trading. Seamless account opening. Social trading.
2. Capital.com takes second place. Low forex CFD fees and commission-free real stocks. Great account opening experience. Excellent email and chat support.
3. ActivTrades rounds out the top three. Low trading fees. Excellent account opening. Free deposit and withdrawal.
4. CMC Markets is ranked fourth. Low forex fees. Great web and mobile platforms. Advanced research and educational tools.
5. City Index just made it to the list, taking the fifth spot. Low fees for forex. Fast and smooth account opening. Diverse research tools.

What makes a good CFD broker? First of all, the broker should be specialized in CFDs. Our reviews also put great emphasis on the overall quality of the service. We also score positively if CFD fees and withdrawal fees are low.

These criteria are easy to list but hard to figure out. We are testing brokers based on close to 500 criteria, using real accounts and real money. You can find the details of all the ranking criteria in our methodology.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. If you don't have a clue what a CFD is, you should start by picking up some basic information about CFD trading.

• Not sure which broker to choose? For a tailored recommendation, check out our broker finder tool. Just enter the name of your country and you will see only those brokers that are relevant to you.
• Want more details? Compare brokers with the help of this in-depth comparison table.

And now, let's see the best CFD brokers for Australian citizens in 2022 one by one, starting with the winner, eToro.

eToro is a well-known Israeli fintech company and a social trading broker, established in 2007.

Check out our eToro review tailored to the needs of beginner investors and traders.

eToro serves UK clients through a unit regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Australians through an Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)-regulated entity. All other customers are served by a Cypriot unit that is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

eToro is not listed on any stock exchange, does not disclose its annual report on its website and does not have a bank parent.

Being regulated by the top-tier FCA and ASIC is a good sign for eToro's safety.

HEADS UP: Minimum deposit based on residency and account activation - Be sure to check the minimum deposit required to activate your account. After uploading your documents, a deposit is also needed to be available to trade and it would be based on your residency, ranging from $10-$10,000. More details are available in the eToro review’s Account opening section.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 68% 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.

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Your capital is at risk

#1 eToro
Fees

4.3

eToro offers free stock and ETF trading, while forex and CFD fees are low. On the negative side, non-trading fees are high, including a $5 withdrawal fee.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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Your capital is at risk

#1 eToro
Markets and products

4.3

At eToro, you can trade CFDs and forex, as well as real stocks, ETFs and many cryptos. Innovative services like social trading and Smart Portfolios are also available.

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Your capital is at risk

Capital.com is a global CFD broker founded in 2016. It has offices located in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Australia, Seychelles and Gibraltar where each is authorized and regulated locally respectively by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA).

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 79.17% 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.

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79.17% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 Capital.com
Fees

4.4

Forex CFD fees are low and some clients can trade real stocks for free, but stock index CFD fees (spreads plus overnight fees) are high. As a plus, there are no inactivity or withdrawal fees.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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79.17% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 Capital.com
Markets and products

3.1

Capital.com has an impressive selection of CFD products compared to other CFD brokers. However, it lacks popular asset types like exchange-listed futures and there is only a few real ETFs available.

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79.17% of retail CFD accounts lose money

ActivTrades is a global forex broker founded in 2001. It is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF)

ActivTrades is considered safe because it has a long track record and it is regulated by the FCA, a top-tier financial authority.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 60% 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.

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65% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 ActivTrades
Fees

4.5

ActivTrades has low trading fees and average non-trading fees. As a plus, it charges no deposit and withdrawal fees in most cases.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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65% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 ActivTrades
Markets and products

1.5

At ActivTrades, you can only trade forex and other CFDs. Other popular asset classes such as real stocks, bonds, mutual funds or options are not available.

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65% of retail CFD accounts lose money

CMC Markets is a global CFD and forex broker, founded in 1989. It is regulated by several authorities globally, including the top-tier UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The company is also listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Having a long track record, being listed on a stock exchange and being regulated by top-tier authorities are great signs for CMC Markets' reliability.

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.

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 CMC Markets
Fees

3.6

CMC Markets has competitive forex and stock index CFD fees, and no fee is charged for deposits and most withdrawals. However, stock CFD fees are high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 CMC Markets
Markets and products

2.6

CMC Markets offers an exceptionally wide selection of CFDs and forex pairs, but you can't trade other popular asset classes such as real stocks or ETFs (except for Australian clients).

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

City Index is a global CFD and FX broker founded in 1983. City Index is the trading brand of StoneX Financial Ltd., whose parent company StoneX Group Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. The company is regulated by top-tier financial authorities, such as the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). 

City Index is considered safe because it has a long track record, it 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. 73% 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.

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73% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 City Index
Fees

3.7

City Index has low fees for forex trading and there is no withdrawal fee. On the other hand, stock CFD fees are high and an inactivity fee kicks in after one year.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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73% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 City Index
Markets and products

2.4

At City Index, you can only trade CFDs, forex and cryptos. Other popular asset classes, like real stocks or funds, are not available.

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73% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Trading CFDs has become very popular over the past decade. Keeping your eyes on important criteria like CFD fees can help you find the best CFD broker for you.

In 2022, we ranked CFD brokers based on close to 500 criteria. When ranking the best CFD brokers, we put great emphasis on the overall score, which we calculated based on all criteria. We also used the following specific criteria for ranking the best CFD brokers: trading fees, non-trading fees and the number of CFDs available.

Fees, fees and fees. We bet fees are always on your mind when you're on the hunt for the best CFD broker. Let's see how we compared the fees of the various CFD brokers.

It's usually not easy to compare CFD broker fees, but we are here to help. There are two categories: trading-related fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees: these are brokerage fees you pay when you actually do a trade, e.g. when buying an Apple stock CFD or EURUSD. The most relevant charges you would pay are commissions, spreads or financing/overnight fees. Some brokers apply all of these.
• Non-trading fees: these are related to other activities in your account, such as depositing money to your account, withdrawing money from it or not trading for an extended period of time.

Trading fees

To make your life easier, we calculated all fees based on typical trading scenarios so that you can make a simple comparison. We looked at the following products:

• Stock index CFD: S&P 500 index CFD and Europe 50 index CFD
• Stock CFD: Apple CFD and Vodafone CFD
• Forex CFD: EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, etc.

Our assumptions included opening a position, holding it for a week and then closing it. We calculated with the following positions: $2,000 with 20:1 leverage for stock index CFDs; $2,000 with 5:1 leverage for stock CFDs; and $20,000 with 30:1 leverage in case of forex CFDs.

Non-trading fees

Similarly to trading fees, we used typical scenarios to make these comparable. We looked at the following non-trading fees:

• Deposit & withdrawal fee: We calculated these fees for a $2,000 transfer.
• Inactivity fee: We assumed that the customer doesn't do any trades for one year. We calculated the inactivity fees charged for this period.
• Account fee: We calculated the monthly total of any account maintenance fees. It's worth noting though that such fees are not very common among CFD brokers.

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CFDs are derivatives, meaning you can make bets on the price movements of a wide range of underlying products. However, it is a leveraged product, making it quite risky.

CFDs are derivatives: you bet on price movements

With CFDs, you can bet on whether the price of an asset will go up or down, without actually buying the underlying asset. Let's say you want to profit from Microsoft's stock price going up. At an online stockbroker, you would simply buy the Microsoft stock. By contrast, at a CFD broker, you can instead bet directly on the stock price going up. However, CFDs are much like knives: they can be very useful, but if you have no idea how to use them, you can easily hurt yourself.

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

Why would this be interesting for you? Well, CFDs have three big advantages:

1. You can make bets on all kinds of products. For example, if you want to trade Turkish stocks, you can do so via CFDs; whereas trading actual Turkish stocks may not be possible at most online stockbrokers. Generally, it's easier for a broker to provide a CFD than to gain access to the Turkish stock exchange in our example.
2. The second advantage is leverage. The potential return on your bet will be much bigger than it would be when simply owning the actual stock. However, this certainly carries greater risk of loss as well, so you should fully understand leverage before you invest.
3. Lastly, CFDs are an easy way to open short positions. This is indeed a big plus.

To better understand these advantages, educate yourself by reading our CFD trading tips.

Not owning the underlying asset exposes you to additional risks

If you do not own the actual stock (or any other underlying asset), you are also running an additional kind of risk that you need to understand before trading CFDs.

If you own an actual stock, it stays in custody with a custody service provider; so even if, in a worst-case scenario, your broker goes bust, you will sooner or later be able to access your stocks again. However, if you hold a long CFD position on the same stock and your broker goes bankrupt, you will be compensated only up to the investor protection scheme of the broker's country of regulation. In most cases, this is a maximum of €20,000.

The regulation of CFDs has changed significantly in the last few years. Among the most significant changes were the measures the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) enacted back in 2018. More recently, the Australian regulator followed ESMA's direction and introduced similar regulations for brokers operating in Australia. These measures clearly show how regulators globally aim to protect retail investors from the riskier side of the retail brokerage industry.

According to ESMA's research, around 74-89% of retail investors were losing money on their CFD positions, and in many cases it was not entirely their fault. One core problem was that some dealing desks made a profit when their clients lost money. If you don't know what this model looks like, this article clearly explains it. Another problem was the aggressive and unbridled marketing of deposit bonuses, cheap prices and messages that promised an easy path to getting rich.

The new ESMA and ASIC regulations are aimed at lowering the proportion of accounts suffering losses. Here are the measures explained in detail:

• Limiting leverage: Previously, it was not uncommon to be able to open a position with 400:1 leverage. The maximum possible leverage is now limited to 30:1 for major currency pairs. Leverage limitations vary 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 individual stocks and for any other underlying assets not included among the above
• 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 one or more of your positions.
• Negative balance protection: You cannot lose more money than you invested.
• Restrictions on marketing and incentive tools: Instead of promoting CFD trading by get-rich-quick promises, brokers have to clearly show what percentage of their customers are losing money.

So do these stricter regulations mean that CFD trading will become little more than a bedtime story we tell our kids? The new rules certainly took off some rough edges: retail investors are now protected from losing more than they invest; while at the other end, canny investors are no longer able to endlessly multiply their profits by using high leverage. All in all, we think CFDs will remain popular despite - or perhaps because of - the new regulations, as trading becomes safer and more transparent.

You should be aware that investor protection regulation is different in every jurisdiction. You should always check the relevant rules.

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

It's time to discuss how to make a well-informed 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 among shareholders and other stakeholders. No wonder that only a small portion of retail brokers decide to give up money in exchange for transparency.
• Banks are the crucial building blocks of any economy. Strict capital requirements, regulations and transparency are a must. Therefore any broker backed by a bank can be considered more reliable than the ones that aren't.

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

Compare protection amounts

You've seen the details, now let's zoom out. Here are once again the best CFD brokers in 2022 for citizens in Australia:

eToro is our winner, the best CFD broker for Australian citizens in 2022. Free stock and ETF trading. Seamless account opening. Social trading.

All five top brokers are great choices. However, keep in mind that CFDs are really risky. If you think you are experienced enough, pick your winner and take the next step in your trading journey. Let us know what you think in the comments section.

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