If you’re looking for strong liquidity and low transaction costs, forex is one of the most accessible asset classes for large and small investors alike. The foreign exchange market is a truly international market where traders take advantage of global currency movements.
If you’re looking to trade forex but are unsure of what platforms to use, keep reading. In this article, Benzinga reviews the top international forex brokers in the market that can meet your forex trading needs.
Quick Look: Best International Forex Brokers
- Best for Mobile and CFD Traders (US & Intl): Plus500
- Best for All Around Offerings (US & Intl): FOREX.com
- Best for Low Fees (Intl Only): Pepperstone
- Best for Educational Resources (Intl Only): AvaTrade
- Best for Beginners (Intl Only): Octa
- Best for CFD Trading (Intl Only): City Index
- Best for Advanced Traders (Intl Only): Saxo
Best International Forex Brokers
It’s important for forex traders to find a broker that is reliable, trustworthy and offers a wide range of currency pairs. Here are some of the top international FX brokers.
Best for Mobile and CFD Traders: Plus500
Plus500 is a derivatives broker offering forex futures and CFD trading, catering especially to beginner and advanced traders who prefer mobile trading.
Why We Picked It: Plus500 offers a user-friendly platform, diverse trading instruments, competitive fees, and excellent customer service. It’s ideal for both beginners and experienced traders, offering transparency, security, and a demo account for practice.
Key Features
- Minimum deposit: $100
- Inactivity fee: $10 or currency equivalent per month after 3 months of inactivity
- Currency pairs: 60+
- Trading platforms: Web Platform and Mobile App
- Maximum leverage: 1:300
Best for All Around Offerings: FOREX.com
FOREX.com is a top-tier forex and CFD broker founded in 2001 and is a subsidiary of StoneX (NASDAQ: SNEX). The company is regulated by several financial regulatory authorities.
Why We Picked it: FOREX.com stands out as an excellent broker for dedicated forex traders. They even offer up to 5% cash back of the initial deposit for U.S. residents. The platform is easy to navigate, caters to beginner and advanced traders and offers excellent all around offerings.
Key Features
- Minimum deposit: $100
- Inactivity fee: $15 or currency equivalent per month after 12 months of inactivity
- Currency pairs: 80+
- Trading platforms: MT4, MT5, Advanced Trading (desktop), Web Trading platforms, TradingView and NinjaTrader
- Maximum leverage: Up to 50:1
Best for Low Fees: Pepperstone
Pepperstone is a well-established and highly trusted forex broker, renowned for its competitive spreads and reliable trading platform. Operating since 2010, it boasts a strong regulatory framework and a wide range of trading instruments, delivering a comprehensive trading experience.
Why We Picked It: Pepperstone is user-friendly and offers advanced trading tools such as algorithmic trading, Autochartist, and API trading. Their customer support is efficient and responsive, and they provide extensive educational resources to help enhance your trading skills.
Key Features
- Minimum deposit: $0
- Inactivity fee: $0
- Currency pairs: 100+
- Trading platforms: MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView, Pepperstone Web Trading Platform and Mobile App
- Maximum leverage: Max retail 1:400 depending on the jurisdiction, Max Pro 1:500
Best for Educational Resources: AvaTrade
AvaTrade is a broker with a large reach from Europe and South Africa to the Middle East, Australia, the Caribbean, Japan and much more. You can easily trade CFDs based on several assets like stocks, forex, indices, crypto, and much more.
Why We Picked It: AvaTrade works best for both beginners and advanced traders who want to volume trade. You can get service in 20 languages and AvaTrade is regulated across 6 continents. They provide exceptional educational content, so much so they earned the Best in Class rating for Education and Beginners again in 2024.
Key Features
- Minimum deposit: $100
- Inactivity fee: $50 or a currency equivalent per month, after 3 months of inactivity
- Currency pairs: 60+
- Trading platforms: MT4, MT5, WebTrader, ZuluTrade Duplitrade and AvaSocial
- Maximum leverage: 30:1
Best for Beginners: Octa
Octa is a multi-platform forex broker that is designed for traders across the globe, offering service for multiple countries. The company has facilitated the opening of over 40 million forex trading accounts in more than 180 countries.
Why We Picked It: Octa offers negative balance protection and funds security, they have Islamic accounts available among several other account styles. They’re a low cost option and provide different pricing structures depending on the account type and have an easy to use trading platform.
Key Features
- Minimum deposit: $25
- Inactivity fee: $0
- Currency pairs: 35
- Trading platforms: MT4, MT5 and OctaTrader
- Maximum leverage: Up to 1:500
Best for CFD Trading: City Index
City Index stands at the forefront of online trading services, specializing in Contracts for Difference (CFDs), forex, and spread betting (for UK residents). Boasting over 35 years of industry expertise, City Index offers a diverse range of tradable assets tailored to both individual and institutional traders.
Why We Picked It: City Index has facilitated over 1 million traders in accessing the forex, shares, and indices markets with a multi-award-winning platform and 40-year history of success. They offer personalized performance analytics and expert market analysis, giving you access to exclusive tools designed to maximize trading potential.
Key Features
- Minimum deposit:£100.00
- Inactivity fee: $15 per month after 2 years of inactivity
- Currency pairs: 81
- Trading platforms:Web Trader, Mobile App, MT4, TradingView
- Maximum leverage: 30:1
Best for Advanced Traders: Saxo
Saxo empowers traders with a high-performance platform offering access to a vast array of over 70,000 financial products, along with comprehensive resources to guide informed decision-making. Through Saxo, you can adeptly navigate market fluctuations with curated investment themes, expert market commentary, mobile alerts, advanced charting tools, and immersive webinars.
Why We Picked It: Saxo offers the sleek and responsive SaxoTraderGO app to enjoy the convenience of executing trades with the same efficiency and speed as on your desktop. SaxoTraderPro members have access a suite of high-performance tools designed for managing and executing orders seamlessly. You can benefit from comprehensive market analysis features, including the depth trader, time and sales data, algorithmic orders, advanced charting package and user-friendly trade tickets engineered for speed and productivity, ensuring swift order placement with just a click.
Key Features
- Minimum deposit: $0
- Inactivity fee: $0
- Currency pairs: 140
- Trading platforms: SaxoInvestor and SaxoTraderGO mobile apps, SaxoPRO
- Maximum leverage: 20:1
How Trading Forex Internationally Works
The National Futures Association (NFA) is a self-regulatory organization that regulates U.S. derivatives, including the foreign exchange market. It imposed limits on the maximum leverage allowed on forex positions for U.S.-based forex traders, though the exact limits vary depending on the currency pair. As a result, many international forex brokers stopped accepting clients from the U.S. Also, because of the restrictions, international forex brokers increased in popularity relative to American brokers because they typically give traders better terms than U.S.-based forex brokers.
For example, forex brokers in the United States only allow a maximum leverage ratio of 50:1, while some international brokers offer client leverage up to 500:1 on major currencies. This high amount of leverage, while extremely profitable when you’re on the right side of the market, could be disastrous if you hold a losing position, especially if you have limited capital.
Another example is the FIFO regulation. FIFO stands for “first in, first out,” and this rule requires you to liquidate positions in the same currency pair in the order they were established instead of choosing which opposing transaction to liquidate.
New U.S. legislation also banned hedging a forex position by taking an opposing position in the same currency pair as one already established. Doing this means you effectively hedge the original position and can trade out of both sides individually, which is no longer allowed for U.S.-based forex traders.
Do International Forex Brokers Accept U.S. Clients?
If you’re U.S.-based and trade forex through an international broker licensed in the United States, your account will be subject to CFTC and NFA rules and restrictions. Regardless of the amount of leverage or other features offered by the international broker, you must adhere to the 50:1 U.S. leverage limit, the FIFO rule, the no-hedging rule and any other relevant U.S. forex account restrictions.
But just because you live in the United States doesn’t mean you can’t trade forex.
Although many international brokers don’t accept U.S. traders because of the additional regulations, several brokers still service the U.S. client base. Many top-tier forex brokers, such as FOREX.com or IG, are based in the United States and also fully comply with the relevant regulations of the NFA and the CFTC.
Keep in mind that when a forex broker lacks oversight from a reputable financial regulatory agency, you run a considerable risk when you open an account with it. You could lose your entire deposit without even making a trade.
What Makes the Best International Forex Brokers?
International forex brokers that offer their services to U.S. clients tend to be the largest and best capitalized since the process of registering and complying with CFTC and NFA regulations requires a significant initial investment and cash reserve amount. Keep in mind that not all forex brokers are created equal, so make sure you carefully consider your needs before you open an account.
The best international forex brokers give traders an easy platform to navigate this highly traded market. One factor that sets the best international forex brokers apart is regulation. Choose a broker regulated by a reputable financial authority, such as the U.K.’s FCA or the NFA in the U.S. This process ensures that the broker is held to high standards of conduct and follows strict rules and procedures to protect client funds.
Another important factor to consider is the trading platform. Reputable forex brokers will offer a user-friendly and reliable trading platform suitable for traders of all levels of experience. Benefits may include advanced charting tools, customizable layouts, and the ability to execute trades quickly and efficiently.
The best international forex brokers also offer customer service in multiple languages to accommodate international traders. They also provide educational resources and support to help traders improve their skills and knowledge.
Frequently Asked Questions
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This metric can be ranked differently based on various criteria, such as trading volume, number of clients and regulatory status. Some of the largest forex brokers in terms of trading volume and market share include FOREX.com IG Group, IC Market, Oanda and CMC Markets.
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It is difficult to determine which country has the most forex traders because there is no central data on the number of traders in each country. Some countries with the largest forex markets include the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Different forex apps may better suit traders because of needs, preferences and strategies. Two of our favorite apps for international trading include FOREX.com and City Index mobile and MetaTrader mobile apps.
