The best Forex brokers in Australia

Australia has a well-regulated market when it comes to foreign exchange (FX) trading, making it a popular destination for traders looking for a secure and trustworthy trading environment. With a rich history of FX trading dating back to the 1980s, Australia has established itself as one of the leading FX markets globally. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the main regulatory body in charge of overseeing the operations of FX brokers in the country, ensuring that they adhere to strict standards of professionalism and transparency that traders expect from their brokers. In this guide we will be exploring the best FX brokers in Australia, taking into account their regulatory compliance, trading conditions, and the overall trading experience they offer.

Our goal in putting together a best brokers list for Australia is to aid Australian traders in picking the top broker for their needs.

A quick comparison of top-rated Australian Forex brokers

When comparing top Forex brokers in Australia, there are a number of things to consider. Ideally, you want a broker that enables you to open an account in AUD. This way you can save a lot of money on conversions. Furthermore, low trading fees on AUD/USD and EUR/USD are also super important. 

	XM Read the review Visit broker 8.4 8.4 8.34 8.34 CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 73.03% 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.	Pepperstone Read the review Visit broker 8.2 8.2 7.75 7.75 Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74.7% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.	AvaTrade Read the review Visit broker 8.8 8.8 7.63 7.63 CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 71% 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.	Capital.com Read the review Visit broker 8.2 8.2 7.81 7.81 CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. The majority of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.	FP Markets Read the review Visit broker 6.88 6.88 4.98 4.98 Trade Responsibly: Derivative products are highly leveraged, carry a high level of risk and are not suitable for all investors. Features of our products including fees and charges are outlined in the relevant legal documents available on our website. The legal documents should be considered before entering into transactions with us.
ASIC regulation	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Operates in Australia under	ASIC	ASIC	ASIC	ASIC	ASIC
Account currency is available in AUD	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Spreads on AUD/USD (commission–free Standard accounts*)	From 1.6 pips	From 1 pip	From 1.1 pips	From 0.6 pips	From 1.3 pips
Spreads on EUR/USD (commission—free Standard accounts*)	From 1.6 pips	From 1 pip	From 0.9 pips	From 0.6 pips	From 1.1 pips
Maximum available leverage offered to Australian clients	30:1	30:1	30:1	30:1	30:1
Minimum initial Deposit	5 AUD (10,000 AUD for shares account)	0 AUD	100 AUD (100 base currency)	20 USD (1 USD for investments account) The broker doesn’t accept AUD as base currency	100 AUD
Desktop Trading platforms	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, DupliTrade, ZuluTrade	MetaTrader 4, TradingView	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5

*Brokers usually offer 2 types of accounts, namely spread-free and commission-free accounts. With a spread-free account, traders are charged commissions on their trades, while with a commission-free account, fees are integrated into spreads. To make comparisons easier, we prioritize displaying prices of commission-free standard accounts where possible. 

More about the 5 best FX brokers in Australia

Below you will learn more about the account types offered by these Forex brokers. We’ll provide you with detailed information on the Australian dollar vs major currencies trading fees, and we’ll include the license number for each broker so that you can check the license documents yourself. 

XM

 

XM is a group of Forex brokers operating under various regulators. The Australian branch is licensed by the ASIC (license number 443670) and operated by Trading Point of Financial Instruments Pty Limited (ACN 164 367 113, AFSL 443670) with their registered address at level 13, 333, George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.

XM was founded in 2009 and quickly gained popularity. The broker provides financial services to over 5 million clients from more than 190 countries.

There are more than 1471 assets available for trading with XM, including: 

• 57 Forex pairs
• 1261 shares as CFDs 
• 100 physical shares
• 31 cryptocurrencies as CFDs 
• 14 indices
• 8 commodities

It should be noted that the minimum deposit required to start trading physical stocks is 10,000 USD. Furthermore, there are no Australian stocks available with XM, which is a clear downside for Australian residents. On the upside stocks from the US, UK, EU, Brazil, and Canada are all available for trading.
 

 

XM

Read the review
Visit broker

8.4

8.4

8.34

8.34

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 73.03% 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.

 

Australian dollar trading with XM

Now let’s take a look at the spreads of the Australian dollar against major currencies. Keep in mind that in the case of AUD/JPY 1 pip equals 0.01, while for the rest of the pairs 1 pip equals 0.0001. Each account type offers different trading fees. 

Pepperstone

 

Pepperstone is a group of companies operating globally under 3 regulatory bodies. The Australian branch is licensed and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. (Pepperstone Group Limited | ACN 147 055 703 | AFSL No.414530)

Pepperstone was founded in 2010 in Melbourne, Australia, and since then has managed to expand its services globally, today serving more than 300 thousand clients worldwide. Pepperstone offers the biggest variety of desktop platforms to traders with the full set of MetaTrader platforms, cTrader, and TradingView being available. 

There are more than 1200 assets available for trading with Pepperstone, including: 

• 62 Forex pairs
• 1000+ shares as CFDs 
• 23 cryptocurrencies as CFDs 
• 23 indices
• 32 commodities

The broker offers Razor and Standard account types in order to meet the needs of different trader types. The Razor account doesn’t charge traders with spread markups, and therefore is ideal for intraday traders that place lots of orders. The standard account type is more suited to traders who place fewer orders, such as swing and position traders.

 

Pepperstone

Read the review
Visit broker

8.2

8.2

7.75

7.75

Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74.7% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

 

Australian dollar trading with Pepperstone

Now let’s take a look at the spreads of the Australian dollar against major currencies. Keep in mind that in the case of AUD/JPY 1 pip equals 0.01. For the rest of the pairs, 1 pip equals 0.0001. Each account type offers different trading fees. 

Avatrade

 

Avatrade is a global Forex and CFD broker regulated in 7 jurisdictions. In Australia the broker is operating under the ASIC’s license (No.406684.). The Australian branch is operated by Ava Capital Markets Australia Pty Ltd.

Avatrade was founded in 2006 and quickly expanded to the global market. Australian clients undergo more client qualification requirements when registering an account, however, the account opening process is fully digital and the web-page is easy to navigate. 

There are more than 1250 assets available for trading with Avatrade, including: 

• 64 Forex pairs
• 629 shares as CFDs 
• 19 cryptocurrencies as CFDs 
• 30 indices
• 17 commodities

There’s only one Retail account type available with Avatrade, but the broker also offers an Islamic version of the account (swap-free account). Avatrade also provides negative balance protection for its clients.

 

AvaTrade

Read the review
Visit broker

8.8

8.8

7.63

7.63

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 71% 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.

 

Australian dollar trading with Avatrade

Now let’s take a look at the spreads available when trading the Australian dollar against major currencies. Keep in mind that in the case of AUD/JPY 1 pip equals 0.01. For the rest of the pairs, 1 pip equals 0.0001. Each account type offers different trading fees. 

Capital.com

 

Capital.com is serving a global client base and is regulated by 4 financial institutions. Capital Com Australia Limited CCAU serves Australian residents in accordance with the ASIC. Capital.com is an Australian Financial Services Licensee (AFSL: 513393).

The company was founded in 2016 and has amassed 1.175 million registered users, out of which 145 thousand are active traders. One of the main reasons why we picked Capital.com for this list is that they offer a large number of assets, and you can find almost any major stock CFD with this broker. 

There are more than 6000 assets available for trading with Capital.com, including: 

• 138 Forex pairs
• 5448 shares as CFDs 
• 491 cryptocurrencies as CFDs 
• 25 indices
• 44 commodities

On the downside there is no availability of opening a live account in AUD, which means that traders from Australia will have additional currency conversion expenses. The broker also doesn’t offer negative balance protection and there are no swap-free accounts (aka Islamic accounts) available for Australian residents. 

For retail traders, only standard accounts are available with a minimum initial deposit of 20 USD. 

 

Capital.com

Read the review
Visit broker

8.2

8.2

7.81

7.81

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. The majority of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

 

Australian dollar trading with Capital.com

Now let’s take a look at the spreads available for the Australian dollar vs major currencies. It must be noted that in the case of AUD/JPY, 1 pip equals 0.01, while for the rest of the pairs, 1 pip equals 0.0001. Each account type offers different trading fees. 

FP Markets

 

FP Markets is a group of companies that include First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd, an ASIC-regulated provider of derivatives and Forex trading services (ABN 16 112 600 281, AFS Licence No. 286354).

FP Markets was established in 2005 and has since received more than 40 industry awards. The broker offers access to a huge number of stock CFDs. 

There are more than 10,000 assets available for trading with FP Markets, including: 

• 63 Forex pairs
• 10,000+ shares as CFDs 
• 11 cryptocurrencies as CFDs 
• 16 indices
• 11 commodities

Traders can choose between Raw, ECN, and Standard trading accounts. The Standard accounts are for beginners and swing traders. ECN accounts are for more active traders such as intraday traders, scalpers, news traders, high-frequency traders, algorithmic traders, and the like. For trading shares, there are IRESS retail and IRESS professional accounts on offer. However, in order to open these accounts at least 1,000 USD needs to be added to your account balance. 

 

FP Markets

Read the review
Visit broker

6.88

6.88

4.98

4.98

Trade Responsibly: Derivative products are highly leveraged, carry a high level of risk and are not suitable for all investors. Features of our products including fees and charges are outlined in the relevant legal documents available on our website. The legal documents should be considered before entering into transactions with us.

 

Australian dollar trading with FP Markets

Now let’s take a look at the spreads for the Australian dollar against major currencies. Keep in mind that in the case of AUD/JPY 1 pip equals 0.01. For the rest of the pairs, 1 pip equals 0.0001. Each account type offers different trading fees. 

Best choice of broker in Australia per category

While there are many traders that solely trade Forex pairs, many others prefer trading stock CFDs or cryptos. Therefore, we broke down brokers in each category and compared the number of instruments offered and trading fees. 

Best Broker in Australia for Forex Trading

Capital.com offers the largest number of Forex pairs and low trading fees.

Best Broker in Australia for Share CFD Trading

According to the ASIC, traders can use up to 5:1 leverage when trading stocks as CFDs. We picked FP Markets as the best share CFD broker because they offer more than 10,000 instruments for trading. Trading share CFDs is available using the MetaTrader 5 platform, however, it should be noted that to access all 10,000+ shares as CFDs with this broker, you will need to open an IRESS account. There are some additional fees that come with the trading platforms. The IRESS trading platform enables traders to access CFD markets directly without intermediaries but comes with a 60 USD monthly price tag. You can also trade stock CFDs free of platform fees using MetaTrader 5, but the capabilities and offered assets will be less.

Traders are charged the following trading fees when using IRESS platforms.

Best Broker in Australia for Crypto CFD Trading

When trading crypto CFDs in Australia, you can use up to 2:1 leverage, which is in accordance with ASIC regulations. Moreover, you don’t have to worry about crypto wallets and where to cash out profits as your profits will be added directly to your trading balance. We picked Capital.com as the top dog in this section as it offers access to the largest pool of crypto derivatives. There are 491 crypto pairs on offer, including the most popular instruments such as: 

• Bitcoin to US Dollar
• Ripple to US Dollar
• Ethereum to US Dollar
• LUNA Classic to US Dollar
• DogeCoin to US Dollar
• Shiba Inu to US Dollar
• Cardano to US Dollar
• SOL to US Dollar

Capital.com offers low trading fees, with spreads on Bitcoin to US dollar starting from just 60 pips. The available platforms for trading these cryptos are the web trading terminal and TradingView. TradingView is a newly released trading platform and has already managed to attract various trader types thanks to its amazing charting technologies, which it was originally designed for. 

How to check if the broker is ASIC regulated or is just registered at the ASIC?

All the brokers that we have recommended are authorized and regulated by the ASIC. However, some brokers might be registered with ASIC without being regulated by this body. In order to make sure that the broker is regulated (and not just registered), you can use the ASIC Connect Professional Registers page. The process takes a couple of steps which are outlined below.

Step 1

Open the ASIC Connect Professional Registers page, then simply copy and paste the broker’s license number in the “License or Registration number” window.

Step 2 

Mark “Australian Financial Services Licensee” from the select register window and press search. 

All Australian-regulated Forex broker reviews 

In addition to the top 5 brokers that we have picked, there are lots of other good brokers to consider that are regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). You can find detailed reviews of many of them on our site. In our reviews, the main focus is on safety and security. We discuss assets, trading accounts and platforms in detail and give insights on anything worth mentioning. In addition, we guide traders step-by-step and show them how to open live trading accounts if they so choose.