FOREX.com Review

Are you an active forex trader?

If so, you probably already know exactly what you want: fast, reliable trade execution which is capable of handling high trade volumes — and no extra fees.

If that’s the case, some would say FOREX.com was built with your investor profile in mind. The platform facilitates CFD and Forex trading, and offers more than 80 currency pairs. It has grown a solid reputation among active Forex traders.

Forex.com, established in 2001 and part of Gain Capital Holdings until it was acquired by StoneX in 2021, is now owned by this publicly traded company on the Nasdaq (NASDAQ:SNEX) and continues to attract a global following.

Is FOREX.com what you’re looking for? Let’s find out.

What is FOREX.com? 👨‍🏫

FOREX.com was launched in 2001 and is part of parent company StoneX Group, Inc., along with sister company City Index.

Today, FOREX.com is one of the leading forex brokers in the U.S. and globally, with $10 billion in total assets as per the company’s GCAP key financial data in Q3 2021, and a total customer equity of $3 billion.

The company grants access to the financial markets for retail traders across the globe, including traders from the US, UK, Canada all the way to Japan and Australia.

Is FOREX.com Safe? 🛡

FOREX.com is considered a safe company and is regulated by four tier-1 regulators, zero tier-2 regulators, and one tier-3 regulator in the following countries: U.S., UK (FCA UK), Canada (CIRO), Cayman Island (CIMA), Japan (FSA) and Hong Kong (SFC). The broker is a member of National Futures Association (NFA) since 2004.

The company offers varying products from country to country, as laws vary. For example, CFDs are illegal in the U.S. therefore the company does not offer CFDs to U.S. traders, but it does offer CFDs to traders outside of the U.S.

FOREX.com maintains level capital well above what’s required by the regulator to help ensure it is capitalized in times of economic uncertainty.

In addition, the broker has a global liquidity plan in place that provides access to significant resources from StoneX Group, Inc., and an external revolving credit facility.

All customer deposits at FOREX.com are kept separate from their own operating funds and distributed across a global network of custodian banks and brokers. CFDs, Metals, Crypto CFDs & Stocks CFDs are not available for FOREX.com clients based in the USA.

There is no negative balance protection offered by the company. The company does automatically monitor client’s accounts and if there is not enough margin in an account, the firm will automatically liquidate positions.

However, this isn’t a fail safe way of preventing negative balances, and you will be left more open to the risk.

Fees & Spreads 💳

FOREX.com generates revenue mostly from its spreads. Customers signing up to FOREX.com will have two pricing options based on the account you choose. The standard account uses spread-based pricing, and doesn’t charge commissions.

But spreads can be larger, starting from around 1-2 pips for the most popular assets and increasing higher than 100 on less in demand currency pairs. That said, all spreads are variable, meaning they can go up or down at any time.

The STP Pro account is recommended for traders with a balance of $25,000 and a really high trade volume. This account doesn’t mark up spreads, but is commission based and is available to traders in the U.S. as well as other jurisdictions.

The commission account meets both of these in the middle and is suitable for higher volume traders with a focus on spreads. It offers low spreads, and charges $5 commission per 100k of trades.

Fees and commissions are not FOREX.com’s strong-points in comparison to other brokers, as its spreads and commissions are a bit high, especially for those with smaller accounts.

Traders can benefit from joining the Active Trader program, and is available to those with $25,000 or more in an account or those making $50 million trades per month.

This account will give you interest on available margins up to 1% APY and as much as $10 in cash rebates per $1 million trades.

Traders with a STP Pro account cannot avail of the Active Trader program however, because it already offers fee reductions based on volume.

Leverage 💼

The leverage offered depends on your account type and activity. FOREX.com offers a margin calculator on their site to help you figure out how much leverage you can get.

EU traders will be offered a stricter leverage due to new EU regulations introduced in 2019. Professional traders can operate with higher levels of leverage however.

Other Fees 💸

Traders who have not traded in 12 months or more can be charged a $15 in activity fee per month.

FOREX.com does not charge additional fees for deposits. There is also no charge for withdrawals and checks. Wire transfers over $10,000 are free, but anything under this incur a fee: U.S. wire transfer will incur a fee of $25, and all transfers outside of the U.S. will be charged $40.

Overall, FOREX.com’s pricing is transparent and easy to understand, and offers traders of different levels accounts.

FOREX.com Compared

What FOREX.com Does Best 🏆

FOREX.com offers a suite of fast trading platforms to help traders of all levels succeed, including advanced trading, web-based trading, a trading app, for those who never want to miss a move, and MetaTrader4 (MT4)

The firm’s platforms are perfect for active traders and long term traders looking to get the most out of their experience. They are all created for ease of use and to help you get to where you need to go.

The advanced platform offers traders sophisticated features and analytical tools including;

• ☑️ Fully customizable dashboards and trading preferences
• ☑️ Great charting tools, over 80 technical indicators, and lots of drawing tools
• ☑️ Advanced analytical tools to help you create complex strategies using one of their templates

The Web Platform 🌐

The web platform will give traders access to calendars, charts, and a news feed, as well as allowing you to see clearly your trade history, and positions. You’ll also get access to expert analysis reports, research reports, and trade signals to help you strategize with the best and up to date market information.

The web platform is well equipped with functions, tools, analytics, and seamless account management for funding and withdrawing from your account, and everything you need to make a quick trade when you need to.

With that, traders can integrate their FOREX.com account with NinjaTrader, a third-party trading platform loved by many.

FOREX.com Mobile 📱

FOREX.com’s app is fast, advanced and clear. It enables traders to make trades on the move, because as the firm says, “when you’re on the move so are the markets.”

The mobile app is a good alternative to the web platform and while using it you’ll enjoy a number of impressive features. These include its full-featured trading and advanced risk management options, TradingView charting & analysis tools, real-time trade and order alerts, and integrated fund management options.

The newly redesigned app has all the features that would be expected from a major brokerage like FOREX.com. This includes one-swipe trading, custom watchlists, your own easy to use alerts, and a light and dark theme.

You’ll also find advanced charting features through an integration with TradingView. There are 10 different chart types, a total of 14 different time frames to choose from, and more than 60 technical indicators and tools.

The app does have full order functions, like the ability to place conditional orders, and easily make stop losses and profit targets during a trade.

Research 🔎

Unlike Oanda, whose research is a bit scattered and difficult to locate, FOREX.com is all very centralized and organized for ease of use.

Users can access the latest research and news from several channels. You can also benefit from its automated pattern-recognition modules from Trading Central, and a frequently updated and informative blog.

Perhaps most interestingly, traders will be able to quickly and easily stay on top of popular market events with great insights and analysis on how certain affairs may be affecting the market; such as Brexit, and U.S.-China Trade War.

The team also streams live weekly webinars on topics including, The Foundations of Forex Trading. This webinar brings traders through a wide range of useful topics from week to week to help identify opportunities and manage risk, learn the difference between trading and intraday trading, and money management techniques 101, to name a few.

If you’re a beginner then FOREX.com might help you build the bank of information you need to get to the next level.

Furthermore, traders can look into upgrading to a premium package with trading signals from Faraday research. This will cost you a fee of £720 for a yearly subscription that might be worth it depending on your needs.

Where FOREX.com Could Do Better 👨‍🔧

Customer Support ☎

You can contact FOREX.com’s customer service pretty quickly and easily through their online chat, or phone support. Support is available from 10 a.m. ET Sunday to 5 p.m. ET Friday.

And if you have a slightly more generic question, that you think others may have already asked, you can visit FOREX.com’s detailed FAQs section, or perhaps one of their video tutorials will answer your question.

There is no social media support though, which is a bit behind the times considering they do have social media accounts that they update with things like the latest market analysis.

The chat is just a chat bot, so it offers a limited range of answers. If the chat bot is unable to answer your inquiry, it will transfer you to a customer service representative. Beyond this, email support is also available, but could take a bit longer to receive a response.

Your quickest and best option is phone support for more detailed questions, but this can also be a little slow during peak market hours.

Overall, the support FOREX.com provides is pretty standard in comparison with other brokers support offerings.

Investment Products 📃

Forex pairs are limited to 83 for U.S. traders, as well as underleveraged gold and silver. Anyone outside of the U.S. will have access to all forex pairs, in addition to CFDs on stocks, commodities, and indexes.

Traders in the UK can go ahead and trade the ever unsettled cryptocurrency; South Korea announced that it would work towards institutional acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

Minimum Balance 💵

Traders can open an account with 100 of their finest units of the account currency. Minimum requirements also apply to lot size.

FOREX.com has a minimum lot size of 1,000 units. To eliminate any confusion, there is no currency value associated with this figure—it’s simply lot size. So, in the U.S., where leverage is 50:1, this effectively means that in order to trade 1,000 EUR/USD, a trader would need approximately $23.70 (which is roughly 2% of the 1,000 euros).

Account Types 🗃

We went through this a bit in the fees section, but let’s get into a little more detail on your account options.

Most clients will choose between two accounts, a standard account and a commission account.

The requirements are the same for both of these but one uses FOREX.com’s proprietary trading platform and the other offers MT4 software. These accounts will offer margin rates that differ by region. In the U.S. for example, the margin rate will be 50:1.

However, the MT4 account does not offer shares, and has fewer commodities. It also offers fewer order types and less ability to set user-defined price tolerance.

Standard Account 👤

This is best for the average use and new foreign currency traders. It is a spread-based with spreads that are higher than some competitors, but charges no commissions.

Commission Account 💱

This account is more suitable for really active and experienced traders. It is, as the name suggests, commission-based, and you will be offered lower spreads.

STP Pro Account 🎯

An STP Pro account is for high-volume traders who have a minimum of $25,000. It offers lower spreads and requires higher volume trades to take advantage of really low commissions, after rebates.

Active Trader Account 🤝

This is a great account if you’re generating a significant amount of trading volume. It offers reductions on standard spreads. For example, the EUR/USD pair can be traded for as low as 0.4.

Demo Account ⏳

Traders can practice their trading on FOREX.com’s practice account that’s available on the trading platform, or on a demo account that’s available on MT4; both of which are good options. Users will receive a cool $50,000 in virtual cash with your demo account that should be enough to get some good practice in for 30 days.

How to Open an Account with FOREX.com 👷‍♂️

To open a FOREX.com online account, just go to the broker’s account section and click on your preferred account option to get started with the application process.

The Bottom Line 🚩

FOREX.com is a top forex broker with a lot to offer. Active traders with high-volume trades will benefit the most from FOREX.com but others, including beginners will reap the benefits from the firm’s organised and up-to-date market analysis and live webinars.

FOREX.com’s platforms are excellent across the board and will enable traders to excel with their advanced tools and functions.

The mobile experience is almost as good as the web-platform, bar some limitations, like offering less technical indicators.

Fees vary depending on your account option but standard accounts charge spread-based fees that are higher than competitors.

U.S. traders are offered 83 investment products, and their assets are limited to mainly foreign currencies. U.S. traders also do not have the option of trading crypto-currencies.

As a whole, experienced traders with a high trading-volume should consider FOREX.com as a valuable option.