Written by BrokerNotes.co
There's something to be said for the dart board method of investing: buy the whole dart board & Peter Lynch arguing in favour of index ETFs.
Here are the best forex brokers for trading ETFs (Exchange-traded or CFDs).
| Minimum Deposit | £250.00 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 8 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 19537 |
Year after year, IG has shown itself to be the best broker in the forex industry and a fantastic choice for forex traders. Highly trusted and regulated across the globe, IG delivers a wide variety of rich features, market research, and powerful trading tools. IG also offers seamless integration of trading signals into its web platform. Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| Minimum Deposit | $0 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 9 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 8500 |
Interactive Brokers is a highly trusted broker regulated across the globe that delivers access to over 100 markets, including forex and CFDs. Its Trader Workstation (TWS) platform offers a variety of advanced trading tools for experienced traders, and IBKR's web-based platform is great for beginner forex traders. Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | No |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| Minimum Deposit | $0 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 7 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 70000 |
Saxo is a highly trusted broker that operates multiple banks and is regulated across the globe. Saxo delivers an incredible cross-platform experience alongside powerful research and a vast selection of more than 60,000 symbols across multiple asset classes. It’s worth noting that minimum deposits at Saxo are steep. Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | No |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| Minimum Deposit | $0 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 5 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 11925 |
CMC Markets is a highly trusted multi-asset broker regulated in multiple Tier-1 jurisdictions. CMC's powerful Next Generation trading platform for web and mobile delivers a huge selection of markets and a fantastic user experience. CMC Markets also ranks highly for its high-quality research and educational content. Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| Minimum Deposit | $100 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 7 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 5500 |
FOREX.com is a highly trusted brand with a long history of offering forex in the U.S. and across the globe. FOREX.com offers its own flagship trading platforms for web and desktop, as well as the full MetaTrader suite. Though its pricing is higher than average, FOREX.com is a balanced choice for traders of all experience levels. Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes |
| Minimum Deposit | $0 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 5 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 40000 |
Charles Schwab is a leader in platform technology and trusted by millions of investors globally with trillions in assets under its brands. Available exclusively to U.S. residents, Charles Schwab's forex offering consists of just over 70 currency pairs, along with powerful research and trading tools. Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | No |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| Minimum Deposit | £100.00 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 7 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 13500 |
City Index, part of StoneX Group, is an award-winning, highly trusted broker with a long history of offering forex and CFDs across its global offices. City Index delivers a well-designed mobile trading app and a powerful web platform, as well as a large range of tradeable markets (though pricing is just average). Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| Minimum Deposit | $0 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 2 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 6200 |
XTB is a highly trusted brand with a proprietary platform (xStation 5) that delivers a rich selection of trading tools. XTB also offers CFDs for a wide range of asset classes, including multiple cryptocurrencies. Beginners will appreciate XTB's excellent educational content and the hundreds of lessons that are available via its Trading Academy. Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | No |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| Minimum Deposit | $50-$10,000 |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 3 |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 5461 |
Best known for its copy trading platform suite, eToro is a highly trusted broker offering a large selection of cryptocurrency products, CFDs, shares, forex pairs, and a wide range of powerful trading tools. It’s worth noting that eToro is not a discount broker (though it offers zero-dollar commissions for U.S. stocks). Read full review
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Android App | No |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | No |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | No |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 51% and 89% 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.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are financial products that combine the pooled asset features of a mutual fund with the trading capabilities of common stocks. As with mutual funds, a trader buys shares/units in an ETF at the Net Asset Value to own a proportional interest. But unlike mutual fund units, ETF units have high liquidity and can be bought and sold in global exchanges through brokerage accounts throughout the trading day. ETFs are continuously priced in the market and can be margined, lent, shorted or could be used as the underlying asset for derivative contracts.
ETFs are generally designed to meet particular investment objectives, mostly passive in nature. Initially ETFs were designed to track the price movements of major equity market indexes and such ETFs continue to be predominantly popular among American traders. However multiple ETF varieties have emerged that track sectorial indices, global indices, bond and commodity prices. According to ETFGI, the global assets in ETFs were valued at $2.9 trillion in 2015. In July 2017, assets in European exchange-traded funds were valued at $662 billion, with around 6000 listings on 26 exchanges, and over 1500 ETFs in total. They are a very popular product among institutional and retail traders alike.
The major varieties of ETF are outlined below:
Broad based Equity Index ETFs: These ETFs track popular market indices such as S&P500, NASDAQ composite, NASDAQ-100 etc.
Sectorial Equity Index ETFs: These ETFs track the movement of industry specific indices and allow the investor to take exposure to particular sectors such as finance, technology, consumer goods etc.
Global Equity Index ETFs: These ETFs track movements of global market indices and allow traders to get easy exposure to promising equity markets beyond the boundaries of their native country.
Bond index ETFs: These ETFs track index movements of federal and corporate bond markets.
Commodity ETFs: Commodity ETFs track prices of a wide range of commodity products such as precious metals, agricultural products etc.
Cost: The annual fees for an ETF fund is much less than actively managed funds because of the lower churn rate of the portfolio, which leads to reduced incidences of capital gains taxes.
Diversification: As ETFs invest in all or a representative sample of securities in a particular index, the portfolio base becomes highly diversified.
Liquidity: Liquidity of a good ETF is comparable to that of a common stock. ETF units can be continuously traded at the listed price, just like stocks.
Transparency: The ETF issuer provides information to the market regarding the ETF portfolio and the NAV value is continuously updated on the exchange as the market price of an ETF unit. This makes ETFs a very transparent investment vehicle.
Speculative contracts: Market indices provide a good representation of overall market trends. Hence, Index ETFs serve as an excellent asset base for speculators and hedgers to take a position based on their market view, and provide a conducive environment for the development of a healthy derivative market around them.
Core & Satellite Strategy: A common asset allocation strategy in which a large chunk of the portfolio (core) is invested in a passive product like a Market Index ETF, benefiting from systematic risk of the index, while actively trading the remainder of the assets. Because of the low tracking error that ETFs offer, they have become a popular product to be used in the core of an investment portfolio.
Cash Equitisation: Due to the high liquidity of ETFs they can be used to reduce cash drag in case of sudden capital inflows. Funds can be directed to the index while more suitable avenues are considered. When the right opportunity comes up, ETFs can be liquidated easily to purchase new assets.
Shorting ETFs: ETFs trade just like shares, this make it possible to short the whole index and take a pessimistic speculative stance on the market. SB& L markets around ETFs are constantly growing which ensures that ETFs are abundantly available for borrowing to meet shorting obligations.
Pairs Trading: Due a wide spectrum of ETF varieties available in the market that follow various global indexes, they can be utilised for pairs trading. For example, if it is predicted that Indian stock markets could outperform the emerging markets index, then it's possible to go long on Indian NIFTY50 and short on the MSCI emerging markets index.
Trading Using CFDs: ETF indexes provide an excellent asset base for CFD trading, where an agreement is made with a counterparty to exchange the difference in NAV between the start date and the closing date of the contract. Traders can take a speculative stance on the whole market by either going long or short on the broad index, and take an exposure much greater than the amount paid by utilising leverage. ETF CFDs provide hedging benefits by balancing out price movement. For example, if crude oil prices go down then the stock price of downstream oil companies in the energy ETF goes up and net losses are minimised.
Trading ETFs with regulated brokers provide multiple advantages such as:
Regulated brokers are well supervised by authorities which makes trading with them much more secure
Many varieties of ETFs are available for CFD trading, such as equity, global equity, sectorial equity, commodity etc.
Spreads offered are quite competitive
Online and telephone customer support
Among the recent innovations in financial instruments, ETFs have been of great significance. They have provided traders with new opportunities to fine tune their trading strategy. At the same time, they have given the retail trader a vehicle which is well diversified, liquid and cheaper than mutual funds. Index ETFs that track broad markets have opened up many speculative opportunities for market participants.
To recap, here are our top forex brokers for 2024, sorted by Overall ranking.
| Company | Overall Rating | Minimum Deposit | Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | Trust Score | Tradeable Symbols (Total) | Read Review |
|
IG
|
9.9 | £250.00 | 0.98 | 99 | 19537 | IG Review |
|
Interactive Brokers
|
9.9 | $0 | 0.59 | 99 | 8500 | Interactive Brokers Review |
|
Saxo
|
9.7 | $0 | 1.1 | 99 | 70000 | Saxo Review |
|
CMC Markets
|
9.6 | $0 | 0.61 | 99 | 11925 | CMC Markets Review |
|
FOREX.com
|
9.4 | $100 | 1.4 | 99 | 5500 | FOREX.com Review |
|
Charles Schwab
|
9.3 | $0 | 1.35 | 99 | 40000 | Charles Schwab Review |
|
City Index
|
9.3 | £100.00 | 1.4 | 99 | 13500 | City Index Review |
|
XTB
|
9.1 | $0 | 1.00 | 96 | 6200 | XTB Group Review |
|
eToro
|
8.9 | $50-$10,000 | 1 | 93 | 5461 | eToro Review |
 Capital.com
|
8.7 | $20 | 0.67 | 87 | 3007 | Capital.com Review |
 Swissquote
|
8.7 | $1000 | N/A | 99 | 472 | Swissquote Review |
 AvaTrade
|
8.7 | $100 | 0.93 | 94 | 1260 | AvaTrade Review |
 OANDA
|
8.6 | $0 | 1.61 | 93 | 3928 | OANDA Review |
 Plus500
|
8.6 | €100 | 1.5 | 99 | 5500 | Plus500 Review |
 FXCM
|
8.6 | Starts from $50 | 0.78 | 95 | 440 | FXCM Review |
 Pepperstone
|
8.5 | $0 | 1.00 | 95 | 1726 | Pepperstone Review |
 XM Group
|
8.5 | $5 | 1.6 | 88 | 1394 | XM Group Review |
 Admirals
|
8.5 | $100 | 0.8 | 93 | 8702 | Admiral Markets Review |
 FP Markets
|
8.3 | $100 AUD | 1.1 | 87 | 10000 | FP Markets Review |
 Tickmill
|
8.2 | $100 | 0.51 | 86 | 725 | Tickmill Review |
 IC Markets
|
8.2 | $200 | 0.62 | 84 | 3583 | IC Markets Review |
 FxPro
|
8.1 | $100 | 1.51 | 90 | 2249 | FxPro Review |
 Markets.com
|
8.1 | $100 | 1.9 | 93 | 2179 | Markets.com Review |
 FinecoBank
|
8.0 | $0 | N/A | 94 | 9770 | Fineco Bank Review |
 BlackBull Markets
|
8.0 | $0 | 0.76 | 78 | 26000 | BlackBull Markets Review |
 Vantage
|
8.0 | $50 | 1.30 | 90 | 1000 | Vantage Review |
 ThinkMarkets
|
7.9 | $50 | 1.1 | 92 | 4000 | ThinkMarkets Review |
 HYCM (Henyep Capital Markets)
|
7.8 | $20 | 1.2 | 86 | 1199 | HYCM Review |
 HFM
|
7.8 | $0 | 1.2 | 86 | 500 | HFM Review |
 DooPrime
|
7.8 | $100 | N/A | 83 | 10000 | DooPrime Review |
 Questrade
|
7.8 | $250 | N/A | 86 | 641 | |
 ActivTrades
|
7.7 | 0 | 0.98 | 81 | 1267 | |
 Trading 212
|
7.7 | €10 | 1.9 | 79 | 8025 | Trading 212 Review |
 BDSwiss
|
7.7 | $10-$5000 | 1.6 | 76 | 1081 | BDSwiss Review |
 Trade Nation
|
7.7 | $0 | 0.6 | 85 | 1000 | Trade Nation Review |
 TMGM
|
7.6 | $100 | N/A | 83 | 12000 | TMGM Review |
 Eightcap
|
7.6 | $100 | 1.0 | 85 | 736 | Eightcap Review |
 Moneta Markets
|
7.5 | $50 | 1.38 | 72 | 1016 | Moneta Markets Review |
 Spreadex
|
7.5 | $0 | 0.81 | 71 | 10000 | Spreadex Review |
 MultiBank
|
7.5 | $50 | N/A | 84 | 1042 | MultiBank Review |
 Exness
|
7.4 | $10 | N/A | 81 | 227 | Exness Review |
 ACY Securities
|
7.4 | $50 | 1.2 | 75 | 2200 | ACY Securities Review |
 easyMarkets
|
7.3 | $50 | 0.8 | 80 | 230 | easyMarkets Review |
 RoboForex
|
7.3 | $100 | 1.3 | 73 | 8400 | Roboforex (RoboMarkets) Review |
 VT Markets
|
7.3 | $100 | 1.2 | 70 | 1000 | VT Markets Review |
 Octa
|
7.2 | $25 | 0.9 | 72 | 257 | OctaFX Review |
 IronFX
|
7.2 | $50 | 1.2 | 83 | 340 | IronFX Review |
 IFC Markets
|
7.2 | $1 | 1.44 | 73 | 630 | IFC Markets Review |
 Trade360
|
7.2 | $250 | N/A | 76 | 1062 | Trade360 Review |
 Axi
|
7.1 | $0 | N/A | 82 | 175 | Axitrader Review |
 TeleTrade
|
7.1 | $100 | N/A | 71 | 500 | Teletrade Review |
 iFOREX
|
7.0 | $100 | N/A | 75 | 750 | iFOREX Review |
 FXOpen
|
7 | $100 | N/A | 76 | 87 | FXOpen Review |
 FXPrimus
|
7.0 | $100 | N/A | 71 | 140 | FXPrimus Review |
 Xtrade
|
6.9 | $250 | N/A | 74 | 482 | Xtrade Review |
 Forex4you
|
6.8 | $0 | N/A | 61 | 150 | Forex4you Review |
 GBE brokers
|
6.8 | $500 | N/A | 71 | 500 | GBE Brokers Review |
 Alpari
|
6.8 | $20 | N/A | 68 | 105 | Alpari Review |
 TopFX
|
6.7 | Depends on payment method | 1.03 | 67 | 655 | TopFX Review |
 Libertex (Forex Club)
|
6.7 | $10 | N/A | 73 | 300 | Libertex Review |
 LegacyFX
|
6.7 | $500 | N/A | 67 | 425 | LegacyFX Review |
 FXGT.com
|
6.6 | $5 | N/A | 69 | 117 | FXGT Review |
 ATFX
|
6.5 | $500 | N/A | 85 | 150 | ATFX Review |
At BrokerNotes.co, our data-driven online broker reviews are based on our extensive testing of brokers, platforms, products, technologies, and third-party trading tools. Our product testing extends to the quality and availability of educational content, market research resources, and the accessibility and capabilities of mobile platforms and trading apps. We also dive into each broker’s trading costs, such as VIP rebates, inactivity fees, custody fees, bid/ask spreads, and other fee-based data points.
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BrokerNotes.co provides unbiased forex broker reviews and ratings to help traders and investors find the best broker for their needs. All content is researched, fact-checked, and edited by our research team and all ratings and rankings are based on the team’s in-depth product testing.