FxPro Review

What have you heard about FxPro?

If you’re like some people, you may not have heard many good things. FxPro has a bit of a spotty history.

While the brokerage has taken steps toward improvement, it continues to lack the trustworthiness found in other brands, like eToro.

Still, the broker has amassed a large client base with around 870,000 users—so it must be doing something right. With low fees, excellent trading platforms, and a suite of powerful tools, there’s still plenty to like with FxPro.

Ready to see if the broker has what you’re looking for? Let’s jump in.

A few years ago, negative comments from concerned clients started popping up on online forums, accusing FxPro of fraud and manipulative marketing practices. Conveniently enough, a series of layoffs followed this ordeal, culminating in the resignation of the company’s executive Vanessa Spyrou in 2017.

In essence, FxPro is a brokerage firm with a fantastic offer for traders, but also a lot of suspicious activity going on behind closed doors. There are a lot of factors to consider here, so let’s take a deeper look into this online broker and see whether it is a money-making machine for its clients or a financial hazard.

What is FxPro? 📚

Among the online forex brokers of the world, FxPro is near the very top of the pyramid. In the course of 15+ years, this Cyprus-based brokerage has assisted traders in executing over 370 million orders and accumulated over €100,000,000 in tier 1 capital.

The brokerage is owned by the Cyprus-based FxPro Group Limited, which is currently one of the top brokers in Cyprus. This is a big deal because Cyprus is home to about 150 competing online forex brokerages which are constantly trying to catch up to the award-winning forex giant that is FxPro.

One of  FxPro Group’s subsidiaries is FxPro UK Limited, the company’s London branch which was created to improve the company’s dealings with the largest part of its client base, its UK audience. Although it is very popular in the UK, FxPro a true international brokerage with over one million clients in over 170 countries worldwide.

FxPro is a no dealing desk broker that offers CFDs on forex, indices, shares, spot metals and energies, and it is are well-know for its overall great service and competitive prices.

FxPro Compared

Is FxPro a Good Broker? 🤔

Simply calling FxPro an award-winning brokerage would be an understatement. The company has won over 70 international and UK awards in the past 15 years, including 10 awards for the best forex broker of the year.

Just imagine, winning 70+ awards in the last 15 years means the company has grabbed 5 awards per year on average without exception since its founding. That is a true bucketload of accolades that very few online brokerage companies can come close to. That’s also the reason why FxPro boldly advertises itself as the No. 1 Online forex broker in the world.

FxPro is an ECN broker, which means it uses an electronic communication network to trade outside the market via a computer system. The company uses this system to provide clients direct access to other participants in the forex market, which means they can sometimes offer users better prices than would otherwise be available to them.

Can You Trust FxPro? 🛡

Like many other Cyprus-based forex brokers, FxPro was only regulated by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec) in the beginning, but as the company expanded worldwide, it came under the influence of a more robust suite of regulatory bodies.

FxPro is currently regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCS) alongside CySec, which means that three tier-1 regulators keep a watchful eye on this brokerage. On top of this, FxPro has won a “most reliable broker” award in 2019, which should serve as a good argument for the company’s trustworthiness.

The brokerage also provides negative balance protection, which means that your account balance can not drop below zero. The only money you can lose is the money you put in, so there’s no way you can get into a situation where you owe the company money because of a few bad trades.

FxPro is considered to be a low-risk company with a great reputation, but you will likely find many negative comments on online forums accusing the company of systemic fraud among other things. Let’s see why that is.

Conflict of Interest? ⚖

Because of its huge active client base, FxPro can route orders internally, which means it can give traders the prices offered by other FxPro users, which should, in theory, allow the company to provide great prices to its customers. However, this also means that the company has the potential to abuse this power, hence the fraud accusations on online forums.

I’ve come across forums where former FxPro users talk about how the company uses this power to present bad prices to traders in order to make a profit for itself. This is a fair concern since FxPro technically has the ability to abuse its system for short-term profit.

However, keep in mind that FxPro is well-regulated and huge, which means that there would have to be more than a few fraud accusations to make this story believable.

What’s more, FxPro is under the obligation to serve the interest of the clients when routing orders according to its conflict of interest policy, so the company would be a very easy target for lawsuits if it were to break the terms of this policy. However, there are some reasons to be concerned for the safety of your money if you’re a FxPro client.

Fake Positive Reviews – FxPro’s Shady Side ⚠

Although it may seem that these random comments don’t have substance to them, there is some evidence saying otherwise.

If you take a look at the forums with negative comments about FxPro, you’ll see that there are just as many positive comments, saying that FxPro is legit and that there’s nothing to worry about.

When I was reading through these comments, the positive ones seemed generic and were written in simple, broken English, which seem a bit suspicious to me. So… I decided to dig a bit deeper.

Being evasive like this raises a major red flag, so naturally, I did even more research. Turns out that you can find hundreds of cases where customers claim to have been damaged through FxPro’s internal order routing system.

I am not the one to trust conspiracy theories easily, but FxPro’s attempts to cover up these unhappy customers’ comments made the entire situation seem believable. However, it is hard to discredit the company based on this, especially since it has millions of customers and dozens of awards under its belt.

There are traders who made a bundle using this household name brokerage service, as well as those who claim to have been scammed, and what makes this confusing is that both groups have good arguments.

FxPro offers a fantastic forex trading service that only a few companies can compete with, but thread carefully, as it seems that they’ve been using underhanded methods to suppress criticism and manipulate their public image.

A Few More Things to Consider 📝

Even if it turns out that these accusations are false, there are a few things to take into consideration before you start trading with this broker.

First, FxPro can strip accounts that have been inactive for a long time of all their funds, according to the terms new clients have to agree to when signing up, so read the the client agreement before you make an account with FxPro. Better safe than sorry.

Also, trading CFDs is very risky as more than 70% of CFD trades on average end up in traders losing money.* Make sure you know what you’re doing before you start trading and keep your account active, so you don’t lose any money.

What FxPro is Great At 🎖

As is the case with many top-tier brokers, there are no commissions for most trades executed on FxPro’s platforms. Due to its huge active client base, FxPro can match a large part of its order flow internally, minimizing risks and costs while offering its users great prices.

The prices may differ greatly depending on what pricing option you pick and what platform you trade on, so it would be best to check out the company’s website if you want an in-depth look at the pricing schedule.

FxPro is a no dealing desk broker, which means that its clients can trade using the exchange rates that big banks use to trade amongst themselves. There’s no middleman between the trader and the market, which should, in theory, lower the costs of trading in general.

Leverage 💼

The leverage you’ll get will depend on where you are based, or rather, which subsidiary company manages your account. FxPro works as a unit of multiple subsidiary companies, which offer different leverage, for example, UK-based traders will be FxPro Ltd. UK clients and they’ll get a maximum of 1:30 leverage for forex majors, while some other international clients can get up to 1:500 leverage.

The highest leverage for forex majors and minors is 1:500, and cryptocurrencies can range from 1:20 to 1:2. There’s a really well-designed leverage information chart on the FxPro’s website, which you should take a look at since it has all the leverage info you could ever need.

Fees & Withdrawal 💳

If you hate losing a substantial chunk of your funds through hidden transfer fees, don’t worry, FxPro has $0 transfer fees for depositing and withdrawing funds. What’s more, there are six transfer methods available, namely, Credit Card, Bank wire transfer, PayPal, Skrill, UnionPay or Neteller.

Another handy feature is that you can make a deposit using different currencies, namely, USD, KWD, EUR, AED, RMB, and SAR. That means you won’t be charged for the conversion as long as you use one of these six currencies.

The only case when you’ll be charged is if you want to withdraw money from an account that hasn’t made any trades whatsoever. In this case, you will incur a fee of up to 2.6% if you are using Skrill, and as little as 2.0% if you’re using Neteller.

The minimum initial deposit at FxPro is $100 but it is recommended to new users to start with $500 or more so they can enjoy the full array of trading features on the platform.

One of the fees you should watch out for is the inactivity fee. Accounts that have not made any trades in the past 3 months will be charged a $15 dormant account fee, followed by a monthly $5 fee as long as the account remains inactive.

Moreover, if an account is inactive for 3 years and there are still funds on it, FxPro has the right to claim the money as their own, according to the client agreement, so it’s better not to neglect your account for a long time.

Account Types 🗃

As any top broker with hundreds of thousands of clients, FxPro offers a bundle of account types suitable for all kinds of traders. Let’s take a look at the account types and their characteristics.

Demo Account ⏳

The best way to get started on any new platform is to try out the demo account. This account allows users to enjoy a realistic, simulated trading experience with virtual money so they can dip their toes into the market without risking actual money.

A very interesting feature of FxPro’s demo account is that you can choose how much virtual funds you’ll have on your balance. Just request it from FxPro’s agents, and they’ll add anything between $500 and $100,000 to your account.

The demo account simulates reality as much as possible, giving users access to all the chosen platform’s features for a limited amount of time. You get to use this account for 30 days after it is created, but no worries, if you need more virtual practice, you can create a new account after the old one has expired as many times as you want.

How to Open a FxPro Demo Account? 👷‍♂️

To open an FxPro demo account, you just need to go to their web site’s homepage, scroll down, and click on the blue “Try demo account” button. Unlike a real account, this one doesn’t require you to provide any documentation whatsoever.

You just need to fill in basic personal data, choose a platform you want to practice with, and provide a valid email address. After that, you just need to verify the account via your email or phone, and provided you are in one of the 170 countries where FxPro’s services are available, you’re all set.

Creating a demo account only takes a few minutes and you can start using it immediately, which is about as quick as it can get. If you like the demo account and decide to open a live account, you will need to provide some identification documents alongside the personal data you’ve already given to FxPro.

MT 4 Account 🌎

An account that lets you trade with no commissions on the world’s most popular trading platform sounds pretty good, right? It does and it is, especially when you take the low spreads that can be fixed into consideration.

The MetaTrader 4 account is probably the best starting point for new traders, because of the low prices and the familiar, easy-to-use platform.

MT 5 Account 👨‍💻

As you might have guessed from the name, MT 5 is a newer version of the MT 4 trading platform. This account provides users with MT 5, which is faster and more feature-rich platform than its predecessor.

Aside from the different trading platforms, these two accounts are identical and choosing between them is just a matter of what platform you fancy more.

cTrader Account 🚀

This account is based around another popular top-notch platform, FxPro’s proprietary cTrader. Aside from being a handy platform, cTrader is used by a lot of brokers, so learning about and practicing with it might be very beneficial if you decide to change brokers at some point.

The FxPro cTrader also offers very competitive prices, as spreads start from the lowest possible point at 0 pips, which makes this platform the most profitable when it comes to spread-betting.

Edge Account 👤

The main purpose of this account is spread-betting. The FxPro Edge is the company’s new platform that is still in its beta stage, so it is currently only available in the UK for FxPro Limited UK clients.

Like all FxPro accounts, the Edge account has no commissions and super low prices all-around, so it is probably worth keeping an eye out for as it goes through further development.

VIP Account ⭐

Getting an exclusive, top-tier account with a broker that calls itself the No. 1 in the world sounds great, but it is not easy. FxPro will only give you their VIP account membership if they like you very much, and what’s a better way to make a broker like you then to treat them with a $50,000+ deposit?

The company will not give you VIP benefits immediately following the deposit, rather, you will first be contacted by one of their agents to negotiate the terms of your VIP membership. This will take quite a bit of time and money but at least FxPro takes good care of its VIP clients.

As a VIP account owner, you get up to 30% discount on spreads, and up to 30% lower commissions when using cTrader, which is a huge improvement for very active users who trade in high volumes.

Naturally, a premium customer should get premium customer support and FxPro provides just that, as VIP users get access to account managers and dedicated customer support. This is an account geared towards very devoted and experienced traders who want to trade frequently and in high volumes at a very low price.

Joint Account 👥

If you want to share the joy of forex trading with another person, you can do just that by opening an FxPro joint account. You can create this account for your trading partners, as well as your company, and there’s also the option of having your money managed by one of FxPro’s professional managers.

Islamic Account 💱

This account caters to investors who want to trade in accordance with Shaira Law. An Islamic  account is swap-free, meaning there is no swap or rollover interest on users’ overnight positions.

In all other respects, the Islamic account is the same as the other standard accounts, so it is a great boon for traders who follow the Shariah Law.

Trading Platforms 🖥

There’s no shortage of solid trading platforms with FxPro. The company offers 4 options, namely, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, and FxPro Edge, all of which are very good platforms in their own way.

MetaTrader 4 💻

MT 4 is the industry-standard platform used by most brokers for its reliability and recognizability. This platform has a basic set of features and is usually slower than cTrader, but it is considered to be a better option for new traders because of its user-friendly UI.

The well-known MT 4 is the embodiment of a platform that you can’t go wrong with, especially as a new trader, however, investors who want more handy features and faster order execution might go for cTrader or even MT 4’s younger sibling.

MetaTrader 5 🤖

The latest version of MetaTrader has retained the intuitive, simple design that made MT 4 so wide-spread and accessible but upgraded the array of features and erased some inconvenient bugs.

MT 5 has a set of impressive technical indicators that are segregated into 5 categories including a “custom” category, which makes it a lot easier to do technical analysis. There is also a treat for users who like auto-trading, as MT 5 has a powerful trading script, as well as an expert advisor.

Traders can also make watchlists and leave their conditional orders, however, hedging isn’t possible on MetaTrader 5, which means that offsetting orders will just be canceled. Aside from this drawback, MT 5 is a quicker, more feature-rich version of its predecessor with the same user interface style that will allow MT 4 users to effortlessly transition to the new platform.

cTrader 🌟

With a slightly larger array of tools than the aforementioned MetaTraders, cTrader is a widely-spread platform preferred by experienced traders who can use the full potential of a more complex, feature-rich platform.

cTrader has been custom-made to be used by ECN brokers like FxPro and has a clean, intuitive design that arguably makes the platform even easier to get used to than MetaTrader. The charting tools are great and you can look at multiple charts at the same time on the platform’s highly customizable user interface.

Auto-trading is one of cTrader’s special features. Tech-savvy investors can build their own trading algorithms to put their accounts on auto-pilot, while other users can use some of cTrader’s default algorithms for their needs.

All in all, cTrader seems to be a slightly more versatile platform than MetaTrader, with a pleasant-looking, accessible UI, that makes it the preferred platform for a very large audience of traders.

FxPro Edge 💰

FxPro has developed and released the beta version of its latest trading software. Edge is designed to be a platform for spread-betting, and trading through it means you have access to some of the best prices on FxPro.

If you’re trading Forex, spot indices, shares, spot energies, and spot metals Edge will surely give you an edge (pun intended…) when it comes to prices and order execution speed.

FxPro Edge is a web-based platform with a well-made mobile version, but it is still in its beta stages. It will be interesting to see what this already well-received platform will look like when it’s finished.

Mobile Platforms 📱

The offer of mobile platforms is similar to the offer of desktop/web platforms on FxPro. The mobile versions of MT 4 and MT 5 are designed to look and feel similar to the desktop version, giving users a clean, user-friendly mobile trading experience.

The mobile version of cTrader is also made to mirror the web-based software in design and usability, which makes this very widely-spread mobile platform an easy-to-use, versatile tool for all types of traders.

What is FxPro Direct? 🤨

Direct is an interesting piece of software as it is not a trading platform, but an account management app that also gives users access to news and market rates.

What makes this app unique is that registering and navigating the UI is much faster than it is on regular mobile trading apps.

FxPro Direct is great if you want to quickly manage your account with no effort. Safety is one more of  Direct’s notable features, as it provides users with high-level encryption so that your account never gets compromised.

At least, FxPro claims that this app is super safe, but it is hard not to believe a company with a “safest broker of 2019” award. With that kind of reputation, you’d suppose they know how to encrypt data.

Customer Support ☎

A world-class broker should have great customer service, or as FxPro calls it, “a five‑star customer service”. It is near impossible to find fault with FxPro’s 24/5 customer support, as it ticks all the boxes regardless of whether we’re talking about their phone, live chat, or email service.

The phone service has local offices and toll-free numbers in Russia, France, UAE, Germany, as well as the UK, and it usually takes less than a minute to get in touch with a support agent, which is very quick compared to most brokers.

Clients and curious prospectors can use the live chat on the company’s website to get in touch with a support agent quickly. The agents themselves are knowledgeable and courteous, and I only waited for a minute before I reached a representative.

FxPro also has a physical location in London where you can get hands-on help from real human representatives from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There’s not much more to say, as it seems that FxPro really does provide a five-star customer service that many brokers can look up to.

Where FxPro Can Make Improvements 👨‍🔧

Range of Offerings:

The selection of tradable products at FxPro is above-average but far from top-level. Users have access to 6 investment types:

• ☑️ Forex
• ☑️ ETFs
• ☑️ Cash Equities
• ☑️ Cash Indices
• ☑️ Precious Metals
• ☑️ Energies

The company offers over 70 forex pairs and about 150 various equity shares, futures, cryptocurrencies, stock indices, and commodities. This range of tradable products is large enough for traders to never run out of investing ideas.

This is a without a doubt a good, diverse offer, however, if you’re interested in a real abundance of trading options, there are better alternatives in the forex world. Brokers like the UK-based LCG offer 9 investment types and a lot more tradable products overall.

Research 🔍

FxPro offers a suite of research tools and news that gets good reviews all around, but is not exactly top-notch. The platforms themselves have many technical analysis tools and you can keep up with the new developments in the forex world through FxPro’s blog, which updates daily.

The broker’s Youtube channel provides good webinars in multiple languages but it gets updated very rarely. The latest webinar on the channel was uploaded about a year ago, so these videos aren’t FxPro’s best source of news and research.

Third-party research & news providers like Trading Central and Dow Jones news are where you can get really good new information. Trading central is a company dedicated to providing valuable, top-quality research to traders for a price, however, FxPro clients who use MT4 or MT5 have access to Trading Central’s great services for free.

Another feature worth mentioning is the handy economic calendar on FxPro’s website, but aside from that, there’s not really that much to add. FxPro provides good news & research but lacks depth in some areas, which means it can’t compete with some high-level brokers like IG and Oanda.

If you like to conduct really deep analyses and be updated as soon as there’s a change in the market, then you should definitely check out these brokers, because they do an awesome job in providing thorough, comprehensive research. However, if you’re looking for something a bit more basic, FxPro has got you covered.

Education 📕

Education is probably the only area where FxPro performs below the industry average. Unlike most other brokers, there is a lack of lessons for beginners, and courses are not that well organized.

Ideally, a broker should provide their lessons in a logical order, starting from basic forex-related concepts and moving towards more complex topics, but FxPro simply doesn’t do that.

FxPro’s Youtube channel looks very impressive at first glance with its 200+ videos and fancy commercials but is actually lacking in engaging educational content. You can find webinars translated to multiple languages on the channel but listening to slow-paced lectures like these is hardly a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Speaking of unengaging content, the company has recently launched its “Trading Academy”, a comprehensive course for new traders, designed to improve the broker’s lacking educational offer.

However, the academy only offers a few written articles, which is practically not worth mentioning, especially if you take a look at some of the best forex education providers in the industry today.

For example, City Index offers a fantastic, well-organized education that can take an enthusiastic new trader from zero to hero in no time at all. City Index’s educational offer is full of well-produced videos that cover just about every forex-related topic you can think of, so it is a far superior alternative to FxPro, especially if you are a beginner.

Bottom Line 🏁

For a company that advertises itself as the “No. 1 forex broker in the world”, FxPro does a good job of living up to its name. The competitive no-commission trades combined with low overall fees makes this company very competitive with other top forex brokers in the UK and elsewhere, especially when you consider the great trading platforms you can use.

The company seems like it didn’t want to invest in its educational resources at all, as you can get better training from most well-known forex brokers today. The research and the selection of order types could be improved too, but they are well above average, and will likely suit most investors who want to trade with this award-winning broker.

However, be careful when trading with FxPro, as the company seems to have used its resources to suppress criticism through unsavory means, and refuses to respond to accusations of misleading marketing practices.