How do we rate forex trading platforms?
Finding the right forex broker can be complex. We’ve analysed 30 brokers based on 28 fees and features to help find the right broker for you.
To find the best forex brokers, we rely on our proprietary algorithm which calculates the rankings of our forex brokers.
We gave forex brokers a score so that we can give them a ranking in our Finder Award's "Best forex broker" page and choose the top broker picks displayed at the top of selected pages.
We asked Finder's data scientists and investment experts to come up with an algorithm that incorporates security and trust, fees, trading features, beginner-friendly tools and markets offered on each platform.
Quick stats
- Trading platforms compared: 30
- Trading features compared: 28
How do we choose our "Top Picks"?
Our top picks are displayed at the top of many of our forex trading guides and feature 3–5 "Best for X" categories.
The brokers are awarded titles using the methodology below and Finder's editorial team decides which top picks to display based on research around user demand.
Finder survey: Where do Australians trade forex?
| Response | |
|---|---|
| Through a CFD platform | 34.85% |
| With a forex broker (non-CFD) | 27.27% |
| With a money transfer service | 19.7% |
| Through an ETF or managed fund | 12.12% |
| Full-service (advice) broker or portfolio manager | 4.55% |
| Other | 1.52% |
Source: Finder survey by Pure Profile of 1145 Australians, December 2023
Which features do we compare?
To find Finder's award winners, we went through and compared the following:
- ASIC licence
- Years in business
- AUD/USD avg. raw spread
- Commissions (USD base)
- Inactivity fees
- Funding fees
- Minimum deposit
- Swap free account
- Amount of tradable markets
- Retail max leverage (Australia)
- Pro. max leverage (Australia)
- MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
- MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
- cTrader
- TradingView
- Mobile app
- Funding methods (number of)
- Copy trading
- Stop-losses
- Demo account
- Currency pairs
- Cryptocurrency CFDs (total)
- Index CFDs (total)
- Share CFDs (total)
- Commodities CFD (total)
- Stockbroking
How do we decide which features are more important?
Our selected categories and trading features are weighed based on the expertise of Finder's banking and investments team as well as user research to show which features are the most important to different investor types. The ratios may change as we update the formula to provide a better comparison experience for our users.
Best overall. To find the best overall broker, we weighed each category as evenly as possible.
Best for beginners. We gave more value to beginner-friendly features such as the number of funding methods, stop-loss functionality, copy trading and demo accounts.
Best value. We gave more value to features associated with cost. For example, AUD/USD average raw spread, inactivity fees, funding fees, etc.
Best for advanced traders. We gave more value to advanced trading features such as the amount of leverage for retail and pro investors, as well as the trading software offered by each broker, e.g. MetaTrader 4 (MT4).
Does Finder compare all forex brokers in the market?
Unfortunately no, but we're trying our best to make that happen. It takes a long time to find and properly analyse broker fees and features. It's important that we don't share misinformation, so we may not be able to cover 100% of the market.
However, we do list the majority of Australia's most popular and well-regarded forex brokers.
The process of gathering this data in Australia is quite manual. Our banking and investment team hunts down forex brokers that are available to most Australian users and excludes those that are limited to "wholesale" (i.e. professional) investors.
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