Best forex brokers in 2019

To help show you the best forex brokers in 2019, we did the research for you. First, we selected only quality forex brokers. Then we checked and compared fees, currency pairs, charting tools, platforms, practically everything. We went deep, so you won't have to.

And now, without further ado…

Our top 5 picks for the best forex brokers in 2019

1. IG is the Best Forex broker. Low fees and a great platform.
2. XTB - A lot of currency pairs and the best CFD broker.
3. FXCM rounded out the top three. It has great charting tools.
4. Pepperstone has low fees and the best customer service.
5. Oanda has the best API.

All five brokers are considered safe. They are all regulated by top-tier regulators from the UK, US or Australia.

What makes a good forex broker? First of all, fair fees definitely. They should also offer a lot of currency pairs and need to have a great platform. It must be easy to open an account and deposit money. These are easy things to list, but quite hard to figure it out. We test brokers based on ~100 criteria with real accounts and real money. We know what's up.

If you are a beginner, be careful with forex trading. You can easily lose all of your money within a couple of seconds. The best way to start is to open a demo account and start learning. All five brokers offer demo accounts. A demo account is where you can try out trading with virtual (not real) money, without risking your own savings. Build up your FX knowledge at forex trading 101.

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

Boring, but important stuff: All five brokers' portfolio contains CFD products. These are complex and very risky, thus not suitable for everyone. You can easily lose all of your invested money. If you don't have a clue what a CFD is but want to find out, start with these CFD trading tips. 

And now, let's see the best forex brokers in 2019 one by one, starting with the winner, IG.

#1 Best forex 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

#1 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 size is $20k, leverage is 30:1

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 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

#1 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.

IG charting

IG's charting tool is great. You can add several technical indicators, make your own drawings and trend lines and set alerts based on technical indicators. You can also save the charts.

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 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

#1 IG
Deposit and withdrawal 5 stars

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

Why does base currencies matter? Because if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, currency conversion fees won't be charged.

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75% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 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

#2 Best forex broker
XTB

Best CFD broker

XTB is primarily a forex and CFD broker, while in some countries you can also trade with stocks. XTB is a global broker with more than ten offices worldwide. In Europe, it serves clients via the UK or a Polish entity. We tested the UK entity but will provide info on all entities.

XTB is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. A listed company is more transparent, as it discloses its financials regularly. XTB is authorized and regulated by different regulators, including the UK FCA.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76% 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 forex and cfd traders looking for great funding and withdrawal processes and research tools

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76% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 XTB
Fees 4 stars

XTB has average trading fees and low non-trading fees.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position size is $20k, leverage is 30:1

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76% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 XTB
Markets and products 2 stars

UK residents, Hungarians and non-Europeans can trade only with CFDs and forex. All other Europeans can also trade with stocks and ETFs.

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76% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 XTB
Web trading platform 4 stars

XTB's xStation 5 platform is user-friendly, can be customized and has a good search function. On the other hand, we missed the two-step login, the leverage setting option and the more sophisticated order types.

XTB charting

The charting tool is good. You can add ~25 indicators which is mid-range, compared to other brokers. You cannot save the chart, but it is easy to share.

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76% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 XTB
Account opening 5 stars

XTB account opening is hassle-free and straightforward. Your account is ready for trading on the same day. However, the sales team is very pushy.

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76% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 XTB
Deposit and withdrawal 5 stars

XTB's deposit and withdrawal are cost-friendly, fast, and can be done in several forms. Fees for electronic wallet deposits are quite high.

Why does base currencies matter? Because if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, currency conversion fees won't be charged.

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76% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 XTB
Verdict

XTB is a good broker. It is regulated by more than 10 authorities globally, including the UK FCA, and it is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. 

On the plus side, the deposit and withdrawal process is fast. We liked the seamless and hassle-free account opening. The research tools are easy-to-use.

XTB has some drawbacks though. Its product range is mainly limited to FX and CFDs, but there are stocks trading is also available in some countries. When opening the account the sales team can be pushy. We also missed the 24/7 customer support.

We recommend XTB for clients who prefer forex and CFD trading and are looking for fast account opening, cheap money withdrawal and great research tools. Feel free to test it via the demo account.

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76% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 Best forex broker
FXCM

Best technical tools

FXCM, or Forex Capital Market, is a London-based forex broker that also offers some CFDs. FXCM was established in 1999 and has two main shareholders: Jefferies Financial Group and Global Brokerage. Both parent companies are listed on stock exchanges.

FXCM is considered safe, as it is regulated by top-tier financial authorities, like the UK FCA and the Australian ASIC.

FXCM is a forex and CFD broker. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 79.79% 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 forex traders looking for easy account opening, funding, and withdrawal processes

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73.62% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 FXCM
Fees 4 stars

FXCM offers low trading fees and average non-trading fees.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position size is $20k, leverage is 30:1

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73.62% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 FXCM
Markets and products 1 stars

At FXCM you will only have access to some forex, some CFDs, and Bitcoin trading.

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73.62% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 FXCM
Web trading platform 3 stars

FXCM's trading platform is extremely customizable. It also offers a lot of order types. On the other hand, there is no two-step login and setting alerts is a pain.

FXCM charting

FXCM does a great job in charting. The charts are easily editable and there are more than 50 technical indicators.
There is also a Market Scanner feature. It shows whether you should buy or sell based on technical indicators, like RSI or MACD. However, only for a few products you can use it.
You can add more technical tools. Some of them are available for free, but for the majority, you have to pay. You can check these tools at "FXCM forex trading app" page.

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73.62% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 FXCM
Account opening 4 stars

The account opening process at FXCM is hassle-free and straightforward. Furthermore, there is no minimum balance requirement.

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73.62% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 FXCM
Deposit and withdrawal 4 stars

There are several options both for deposit and withdrawal. Also, the deposit is free of charge. On the negative side, withdrawal can be slow.

Why does base currencies matter? Because if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, currency conversion fees won't be charged.

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73.62% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 FXCM
Verdict

FXCM has low trading fees and financing rates. Its technical research tools are high quality and well organized. It also offers fast and straightforward account opening.

However, FXCM only offers forex, some CFDs and cryptos. Their mobile and desktop trading platforms need an update, as they are outdated and not user-friendly.

Feel free to try FXCM. There is no minimum deposit, and the inactivity fee only kicks in after a year.

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73.62% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Best forex broker
Pepperstone

Best customer support

Pepperstone is an Australian forex broker that also offers some CFDs. It was established in 2010 and opened a London office in 2015 to better serve European clients.

Pepperstone is considered safe, as it is regulated by top-tier financial authorities, like the UK FCA and the Australian ASIC.

Pepperstone is a forex and CFD broker. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 71.4% 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.

Recommended for forex traders aiming for a good customer service

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71.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Pepperstone
Fees 4 stars

Pepperstone has low trading fees and average non-trading fees. It has no inactivity fee. On the negative side, the withdrawal fee is high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position size is $20k, leverage is 30:1

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71.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Pepperstone
Markets and products 1 stars

At Pepperstone you can only trade with forex, some CFDs, and cryptos.

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71.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Pepperstone
Web trading platform 4 stars

Pepperstone offers only third-party trading platforms. We tested cTrader, which is a great platform: it is well-designed and user-friendly. On the negative side, it lacks the two-step login.

Pepperstone charting

Pepperstone does a great job in charting. The charts are very responsive, easily editable and you can use more than ~50 technical indicators. You can also save them.
You can also use a pattern recognition tool powered by Autochartist, a third-party.

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71.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Pepperstone
Account opening 4 stars

Pepperstone account opening is great. It is fully digital and user-friendly. On the negative side, it can take several days.

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71.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Pepperstone
Deposit and withdrawal 4 stars

Pepperstone offers a lot of deposit options, which are user-friendly. However, the withdrawal fees are high.

Why does base currencies matter? Because if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, currency conversion fees won't be charged.

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71.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#4 Pepperstone
Verdict

Pepperstone is a good FX and CFD broker. 

The customer service is great, you will get relevant answers within a short time. Account opening is a breeze, with no minimum deposits. The website is well-designed, clear and easy to navigate.

Pepperstone only offers FX and some CFDs. Its research and education tools could be improved, as there are not a lot of services and options.

Feel free to try Pepperstone. There is no inactivity fee or minimum deposit for standard accounts. 

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71.4% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 Best forex broker
Oanda

Best API

Oanda is an American FX broker established in 1996. It is considered safe, as it is regulated by top-tier financial authorities, like the UK FCA and the Australian ASIC.

Oanda is a forex and CFD broker. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 77% 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 forex traders that prefer a user-friendly platform and great research tools

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77% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 Oanda
Fees 3 stars

Oanda offers low trading fees and high non-trading fees. The withdrawal fee can be really high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.
Position size is $20k, leverage is 30:1

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77% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 Oanda
Markets and products 1 stars

At Oanda, you can trade only forex and some CFDs.

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77% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 Oanda
Web trading platform 5 stars

The Oanda trading platform is great. It is very user-friendly with great customizability and good search functions. On the other hand, you cannot set price alerts.

Oanda charting

Oanda does a great job in charting. The charts are very responsive, easily editable and you can use more than 70 technical indicators. You can also save them.
You can also use many other tools for better chart analysis. E.g. there is a pattern recognition tool and there are also educational materials. They can be found at the "Technical analysis" section.

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77% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 Oanda
Account opening 4 stars

Oanda account opening is hassle-free and straightforward. There is no minimum balance required. On the other hand, the sales team is pushy.

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77% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 Oanda
Deposit and withdrawal 4 stars

You can use many options for both deposit and withdrawal, and the first withdrawal is free for cards. However, the withdrawal can take long and the withdrawal fee can be high.

Why does base currencies matter? Because if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, currency conversion fees won't be charged.

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77% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#5 Oanda
Verdict

Oanda is a good FX broker.

It has a great web trading platform, you will feel comfortable in a very short time. It provides user-friendly and fully digital account opening. Its research tools are powerful, especially its API.

On the other hand, Oanda has a limited product portfolio, only FX and CFDs. The customer support is slow and usually provides irrelevant answers. The money withdrawal fee can be high.

Feel free to try Oanda. There is no minimum deposit, and the inactivity fee only kicks in after two years. 

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77% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Best forex brokers
What makes a good forex broker?

Trading with forex has become really popular over the last decade. Keeping your eyes on important criteria like fees helps you to find the best forex broker for you. 

We tested brokers based on more than 100 criteria. Below, we will show you the 5 most important criteria to take into account.

Best forex brokers
Forex broker fees

Fees, fees, fees. We bet this is at the top of your mind when you're looking for the best forex broker. It can be complicated. Let's see how we did it. 

It is not easy to compare forex broker fees, but we are here to help. Forex brokers can charge commissions, spreads and financing fees.

For commissions, there are two versions forex brokers use:

1. All trading fees are included in the spread except the financing rate. Basically, think of it as the broker giving you a wider spread than it gets from the market.  
2. You get the market spread, but you pay a commission based on the traded amount.

The latter is more transparent, but this doesn't mean the first method cannot be cheaper.

When you trade forex on leverage and hold your position overnight, a fee will be charged. This fee is called a rollover or financing fee. The financing rate depends on the currency pair and the broker.

To make your life easy, we calculated everything for you. We calculated what your overall fee would be if you take a $20,000 position, hold it for a week then close it. We used a 1:10 leverage.

You see this for the EURUSD and EURGBP currency pairs.

Best forex brokers
Forex trading 101

Forex trading looks simple, but it carries serious risks. Before trading, understand the basics and ask yourself: is this for me?

Understanding the forex market

Forex, FX, foreign exchange or currency market: you have probably already heard one of these expressions. They all mean the same: a market where you can exchange currencies or bet on the price movement of currency pairs.

The forex market has several outlets, from the currency exchange booths on the street to the currency trading desks of big banks.

For a layperson, a non-professional individual as you probably are, the easiest and safest way to trade forex is by opening an account at a reliable online broker.

The vast majority of currency transactions are conducted on OTC (over-the-counter) markets. An OTC market is a non-regulated market. On a non-regulated market, you have to assess for yourself how safe your counterparty is. For example, when you travel abroad to an exotic country and you need to exchange some money, you usually go to a bank branch instead of changing money on the street. This is how you minimize your counterparty risk. You have to do the same risk minimization when you select your online broker for trading forex. You should always choose a reliable broker.

Forex trading is very tempting for the following reasons:

• everybody has an opinion on where the currencies are going

• on first sight, the forex market is relatively easy to understand compared to other markets, like the stock market

• by using leverage, a trader can easily trade with 100 times more money than they have on their trading account and thus also increase profits (or losses!) 100 times

• the market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week

• it is the most liquid market in the world, meaning there are huge numbers of transactions every second and you don't have to worry about not finding a partner to trade with

Although it looks easy, trading with forex can be risky if you don't know what you're doing. By using high leverage irresponsibly, you can easily lose all of your money within a couple of seconds. So you better start off slow, learn and open a demo account first. If you want to study more, check out our blog post about the best trading apps for learning.

Forex market trading hours

The forex market is open from 11:00 PM on Sunday until 11:00 PM on Friday, London time.

The highest trading activity within each day is when London and New York are open.

It is good to know that there is a difference between currency conversion and forex trading.

The end result of a conversion is basically changing one currency into another. Imagine that you receive your salary in euros (EUR), but you spend it in British pounds (GBP). In this case, you exchange the euros to pounds. Before the transaction you had euros, and after it you will have pounds.

When you trade with currency pairs there is no physical conversion happening. Imagine that you have an online broker account in US dollars and you want to bet on the price movements of the EURUSD. In this case, you effectively never convert your dollars to euro. If your bet was correct, the profit from your trade will be booked to your account in US dollars. If you were wrong, the loss will be deducted from your account in dollars as well.

Breaking down the forex trading jargon

When you trade forex, you bet on the price change of a currency pair, for example, the EURUSD.

First of all, you need to understand what the bid and the ask prices are. Let's take the EURUSD again as an example. The 'bid' is the price at which you can sell the EURUSD, or in other words to go short in it. If the price goes lower, you will generate a profit. The 'ask' price is the opposite. If you want to bet on the price increasing, you can open a trade at the 'ask' price. The mid-price is usually halfway between the two, but this is just a theoretical price that is not used for trading.

The actual bid and ask prices together are called the quote.

A long position is when you bet on the price going up, while a short position is when you profit from the price going down.

The spread is the difference between the ask and bid prices. In the example above, the spread is 0.0005, which is calculated as 1.1705-1.1700.

The pip is the smallest amount of a currency pair. One pip is equal to 0.0001 for most of the currency pairs. In case of our example, the spread is 5 pips, or 5 times 0.0001, equalling 0.0005. For some currency pairs like the USDJPY, one pip is 0.01.

Leverage allows you to take bigger positions than the amount of money on your account. Imagine this as a multiplier of your profit or your loss. This can be as high as 300. Imagine you have $1000 on your account and your applied leverage is 100. If you open a long position by using all your $1000, this means you open a trade for $1,000*100, or $100,000. If the price decreases 1%, you will lose $1000 (1%*$100,000), that is, all of the money on your account. And the price of a currency pair can very easily decrease by 1%. In case of EURUSD, this would mean a price decrease from 1.1705 to 1.1588.

A lot is the standard number of units of a forex contract. It is usually 100,000 units of the base currency. The base currency is the first currency in a currency pair. For EURUSD, the base currency is the EUR and one lot is €100,000. A mini lot is 10,000, a micro 1,000 and a nano 100 units of the base currency.

In forex trading, you can encounter three types of contracts: spot, forward and futures. The spot forex contract is the type that is traded by most people, and this also what you trade when you use an online broker. A spot contract by definition is settled two days after the trade. Settlement means that the counterparties who traded are converting their currencies between each other at the price of the trade made two days earlier. Imagine the settlement as a currency conversion made at a money exchange office on the street. The only difference is that this happens two days after the price was agreed on.

However, in most cases, the settlement doesn't actually happen, because spot contracts are rolled over before the settlement. This is always the case when you trade forex with your online brokers. The rollover happens because when you are betting on the direction of a currency pair, you do not want to actually convert money into the other currency, you just want to bet on the price movement. The rollover ensures that the conversion will not happen.

When your position is rolled over, your online broker in the background basically closes your current spot position and opens a new one. This is not visible for you, but it has a fee, called the rollover or financing fee. The rollover fee is calculated from the interest rate difference between the two currencies you are trading. In some cases, you may also receive a fee from the broker, if the interest rates you trade are in your favor. 

A forward forex contract is a contract made on the OTC market. The specifics of the contract, like the term, the price and the settlement are defined by the counterparties case by case. For example, imagine a company which will need $100,000 in 30 days for paying its employees, but it will receive its revenue in euro. Since it wants to specify the exact exchange rate it can get in 30 days, it will seal a forward contract with a big bank at a fixed price, let's say 1.1710. After 30 days, they will exchange the currencies and the company will receive €85,397 ($100,000/1.1710). In this case, the settlement actually happens.

A futures forex contract is traded on a regulated market, for example, a commodity exchange, like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). When you trade futures, your counterparty is the exchange and the specifics of the contract are predefined by the exchange. When your counterparty is a regulated exchange, you don't need to check your counterparty risk, as this is one of the safest modes of trading. However, the exchange requires a large amount of initial money for trading, so this is not suitable for you if you have little money to invest. For example, if you want to trade one EURUSD futures contract on the CME, you need to have more than $2000 on your account.

What drives the forex market price?

As we said above, everybody has an opinion about the forex market, because it seems simple. However, currency markets are among the most unpredictable ones in the world.

Everything from monetary policies and government spending to politics and wars can influence the price change of currency pairs. So many different factors can affect prices that it is difficult to make a prediction on which way they will move.

Nevertheless, economic calendars can help, so at least know about the scheduled events that could have an effect on the forex market.

Best forex brokers
Bottom line

You saw the details, now let's zoom out. Here are the best forex brokers in 2019:

IG is our winner, the best forex broker in 2019. Next is XTB, the best CFD broker, but only second in forex. FXCM placed third, with a great charting tool in its favor. Pepperstone has many currency pairs, the platform is good, and it has the best customer service. Oanda has the best API, and does well overall too.

All are considered safe, and a great choice. Watch out, FX can be risky. If you know enough and are good to go, 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 and find the best broker for you.

AUTHOR

Gergely Korpos

Co-founder, CPO

Gergely's aim is to bring more clarity into personal investing. He has 10 years of experience in financial markets with GE Money, KPMG and MOL. He concluded thousands of trades as a commodity trader and financial portfolio manager

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