Intro
Australia-based Pepperstone is primarily a forex broker that also offers a wide range of CFDs. The broker operates offices in London, Cyprus, Düsseldorf, Melbourne, Dubai and Kenya.
The fact that Pepperstone is regulated by three top-tier financial authorities - the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Germany's BaFin and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) - adds confidence to the broker's safety.
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75.2% of retail CFD accounts lose money
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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The company and its environment:
History, Founders, Customer base, Competitors -
Our analysis and guides on Pepperstone:
Pepperstone review 2022 -
Services offered:
Forex, CFDs, Social Trading and Spread Betting -
Legal background:
Countries served, Legal entities, Regulation
History of Pepperstone
Pepperstone was founded in Australia in 2010 by Owen Kerr and Joe Davenport. The company grew rapidly and by 2014, it raked in revenues of $60 million. Pepperstone focused on global expansion and entered the European markets in 2015 with the opening of a Pepperstone office in London. Following Brexit, new clients registering from the EU are served by Pepperstone's German and Cyprus entities. They expanded their global outreach by getting licensed in Cyprus, Germany (2020), Kenya (2021) and Dubai.
In 2013, Pepperstone played an active role in uncovering Australia's largest insider trading case in history by working alongside the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Federal Police.
Pepperstone sold most of its business to Champ Private Equity in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. In September 2018, the private equity firm sold its stake in Pepperstone to the broker’s founders, the senior management team led by chief executive Tamas Szabo, and to CHAMP managing director Fiona Lock. The terms of the deal were confidential. CHAMP justified the move by saying that they achieved their “growth objectives ahead of schedule.”
Since 2017, Pepperstone has been led by CEO Tamas Szabo, who had previously worked for IG Group for nearly 2 decades.
In 2022, Pepperstone partnered with renowned social charting platformTradingView to provide access for Pepperstone customers to advanced charts and analysis, powerful trading tools, and the world’s largest social network of traders.
In order to strengthen its position on the Australian market, the broker signed a sponsorship agreement with the South East Melbourne Phoenix basketball team for the NBL 2022 season.
As part of its charity activities, Pepperstone sponsored Melbourne’s “Biggest Ever Bloke’s Lunch” event, a cause designed to educate men about prostate cancer through early detection and protection while raising support and investment into treatment research.
Pepperstone founders and team
Pepperstone was founded by Owen Kerr and Joe Davenport. They both serve on the board of the company. The company does not release detailed information about its management team and corporate structure.
IG Group’s Tamas Szabo took over as CEO in 2017, after working at IG since 1999.
According to the company’s LinkedIn profile, Pepperstone has more than 400 employees globally.
Customer base
According to the company’s website, Pepperstone had over 300,000 registered account holders. The number of active retail trading accounts exceeded 110,000.
The broker processed an average of $9.2 billion of trades per day, based on all average Pepperstone trades from March 2018 until March 2020.
Competitors
Pepperstone is one of the world’s largest forex brokers and it caters to both seasoned and novice traders with a heavy focus on forex and CFD investments. Here’s the list of the best alternatives to Pepperstone, compiled on the basis of the BrokerChooser methodology:
- IC Markets - Australia-based global forex broker recommended for forex and CFD traders who value easy account opening and free deposit/withdrawal options
- Axi - Australian forex broker recommended for forex traders familiar with the MetaTrader 4 platform
- TMGM - Australia-based global forex broker recommended for forex traders who prefer the MetaTrader platform
- Eightcap - Australian forex broker with a global presence, recommended for forex traders who prefer the MetaTrader platform
Services offered
Pepperstone is primarily a forex broker with a wide selection of CFD products.
Forex
Pepperstone’s forex portfolio includes 62 currency pairs, including a range of exotic pairs. The broker offers up to 30:1 leverage, which you can reduce manually at any time. This is a very useful feature in terms of risk management as higher leverage means bigger potential losses. You can also place stop loss orders with no restrictions. All FX trades are filled in full, with no partial execution or requotes on market orders. Forex spreads depend on the type of account you choose.
CFDs
The CFD product portfolio consists of stocks, indexes, ETFs, commodities and cryptocurrencies.
Available cryptos include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Polkadot and others. Cryptos are not available to UK retail consumers, as per FCA ruling.
Clients also have access to 600+ US stocks as share CFDs, including large-cap companies like Boeing, Facebook, Apple, Exxon and Alibaba. In addition, the share CFD selection includes 100 popular UK stocks, a number of German shares as well as more than 100 Australian shares. You'll need MetaTrader 5 to trade share CFDs. There is no stamp duty to be paid on UK CFD trades.
For all CFD trades, you can change the leverage in the secure Client Area.
Social trading, spread betting
Pepperstone has partnered with multiple social trading platforms, through which clients can access copy trading features including Myfxbook, Mirror Trader, MetaTrader Signals and DupliTrade.
UK and Irish clients can use Pepperstone’s spread betting services. In the UK, spread betting profits are exempt from capital gains tax and stamp duty.
Countries served
Pepperstone accepts customers from all over the world with some notable exceptions, including the US, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.
Country of clients | Protection amount | Regulator | Legal entity |
---|---|---|---|
UK | £85,000 | FCA | Pepperstone Limited |
Germany, Austria | €20,000 | BaFin | Pepperstone GmbH |
Other European countries | €20,000 | CySec | Pepperstone EU Limited |
Middle-Eastern countries | No protection | DFSA | Pepperstone Financial Services Limited |
Australia | No protection | ASIC | Pepperstone Group Limited |
African countries | No protection | CMA | Pepperstone Markets Kenya Limited |
All other clients | No protection | SCB | Pepperstone Markets Limited |
Legal Entities
Pepperstone operates through the following legal entities:
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Pepperstone Group Limited - regulated by ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission)
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Pepperstone Markets Limited - regulated by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB)
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Pepperstone EU Limited - regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC )
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Pepperstone Financial Services (DIFC) Limited - regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) -
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Pepperstone GmbH - regulated by the federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany (BaFin )
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Pepperstone Markets Kenya Limited - regulated by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA )
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Pepperstone Limited - regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK
Regulation
Pepperstone is licensed and regulated by the following authorities:
- Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in Australia
- Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in Cyprus
- BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) in Germany
- Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in the UAE
- Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in Kenya
- Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB)
Visit Pepperstone
75.2% of retail CFD accounts lose money
Further reading:
- Pepperstone fees
- Pepperstone minimum deposit
- Pepperstone Minimum Deposit from South Africa
- Pepperstone Minimum Deposit from Kenya
- How to withdraw from Pepperstone
- Pepperstone's customer service detailed
- Pepperstone's online trading education
- Is Pepperstone considered safe?
- Pepperstone research and analysis tools
- Opening an account at Pepperstone
- Pepperstone available instruments
- Pepperstone trading platforms
- Pepperstone MetaTrader
- Does Pepperstone have MT4?
- What is Pepperstone's cTrader?
- Does Pepperstone have low spreads?
- Pepperstone app
- Can you trade options at Pepperstone?
- Pepperstone alternatives
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.