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FXCM stocks: an in-depth guide to stock trading at FXCM

Your expert
Gyula L.
Fact checked by
Tamás D.
Updated
2w ago
Personally tested Personally tested
Data-driven Data-driven
Independent Independent

Stock trading at a glance

Buying and selling stocks is probably the most common form of investment and given the explosion in the number of online brokers over the past years, nearly everyone can invest in stocks. You don't need a large amount of money to start investing in a company; everyday investors do it with $100 or less.

FXCM clients can only trade stock CFDs; actual stocks are not available. CFDs (short for contract for difference) are derivative products. If you buy a CFD, you speculate on price movements without buying the actual asset or commodity (stocks, gold etc). For example, if you buy a Tesla share CFD and Tesla’s share price goes up, so will the value of your CFD.

If this is the first time you're considering opening a CFD position, we recommend you check out our expert guide to CFD trading. Just like with regular stocks, you will need to open an account at FXCM, top it up, select the CFD(s) you want to buy, purchase them, review your positions on a regular basis, and eventually sell them.

Disclaimer: 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

CFDs can be a good idea for short-term traders, but remember that these financial instruments have many drawbacks. For instance, you'll need to pay the broker a financing charge as long as you hold the CFD. This fee could add up to a significant amount if you hold the CFD for several weeks.

Take a look at our ranking of the best discount brokers if you want to trade real stocks instead of CFDs.

If you're an American investor, we have a page dedicated to the best stock brokers in the US.

European stock traders may find our updated list of the best stock brokers in Europe handy.

For other countries, check out our broker finder tool for a personal recommendation.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

What stocks can you trade at FXCM?

At FXCM, you have access to 219 stock CFDs.

Snapshot of CFD market and stock CFD availability
Number of stock CFDs available
219 4,500 1,400

Data updated on March 13, 2024

Trading costs at FXCM

Trading stocks comes with a range of brokerage fees, which can be divided into trading and non-trading fees. Trading fees are directly tied to a trade and usually include commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees. Non-trading fees are charges not directly related to trading, such as withdrawal fees or inactivity fees. When you are trading stocks, the most important fees are commissions. For a more detailed breakdown of costs related to investing, check out our in-depth guide to brokerage fees.

In order to calculate CFD fees, we compared brokers by calculating all the fees of a typical trade for selected products. We chose popular instruments that best reflect CFD trading fees:

  1. Stock CFDs: Apple and Vodafone (UK)
  2. Stock index CFDs: the S&P500 index (SPX) and the EURO STOXX 50 index

We calculated these simulated trades using a leveraged CFD position, which we held for a week before selling it. The following table contains the most important charges we incurred.

We opened a $2,000 position or the EUR/GBP equivalent. The leverage we used was 20:1 for stock index CFDs and 5:1 for stock CFDs. These catch-all benchmark fees include spreads, commissions and financing costs for all brokers.

FXCM fee snapshot for stock CFD trades
Apple stock CFD
$6.5 $23.1 $4.5
Vodafone stock CFD
-
$29.1 $7.3
S&P 500 index CFD
$3.4 $3.3 $3.2
Europe 50 index CFD
$3.5 $3.3 $3.2

Data updated on March 13, 2024

Now let's take a look at non-trading fees. Most online brokers don't charge an account fee, nor deposit fees, but inactivity fees and withdrawal fees are more common.

FXCM fee snapshot for non-trading fees
Account fee
No
No
No
Inactivity fee
Yes
Yes
No
Deposit fee
$0
$0
$0
Withdrawal fee
$0
$0
$0

Data updated on March 13, 2024

Minimum deposit for trading stocks at FXCM

The minimum deposit to open a brokerage account with FXCM is $50. You can see in the table below how this amount stacks up against the closest competitors of FXCM.

Minimum amount required to open an account at FXCM vs its competitors
Minimum deposit
$50
$100
$0

Data updated on March 13, 2024

Bottom line

While buying stocks and ETFs may prove one of the best long-term investments, it also carries a number of risks. In addition to unpredictable market movements, the most common risks include choosing the wrong broker, not diversifying your portfolio and investing in lousy stocks. To avoid some of these pitfalls, check out our guide about managing risks related to trading stocks.

We recommend only quality brokers, so you can be sure that none of the online brokers listed here are scams. In order to be sure, we check roughly 20 safety-related criteria, such as regulation, investor protection amount and the transparency of the broker's financials. Lastly, at least one top-tier financial authority regulates all the brokers you can find on BrokerChooser.

If you want to read our full review of FXCM, including fees, deposit options and platform reviews (like web and desktop), visit FXCM review.

Check out this short video for a behind-the-scenes peek into how our experts personally test and evaluate brokers.

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Further reading

Author of this article

Gyula Lencsés, CFA
Gyula Lencsés, CFA

Gyula is a former analyst expert and Head of Content at BrokerChooser. With over a decade in finance, he led content creation at BrokerChooser and personally evaluated some of our 100+ listed brokers. He opened real-money accounts, executed transactions, and engaged with customer services, offering firsthand assessments. Prior to BrokerChooser, he managed mutual funds in wealth management, trading stocks, ETFs, bonds, commodities, forex, and derivatives. His goal: simplify the hunt for top brokers in a dynamic investment landscape.

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.

Visit FXCM 70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

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