Swissquote vs FXCM 2024

Trust Score is a data-driven rating system that provides an at-a-glance rating of a broker’s overall trust by tracking 60+ brokers and over 100 regulatory jurisdictions across the globe. To make things clearer for everyday traders, we’ve created a five-tier system for regulators and Trust Score rating labels. Learn more about Trust Score, and check out our country guides to see the most trusted brokers in your country of residence.

Swissquote has a Trust Score of 99, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

FXCM has a Trust Score of 95, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

Traders at Swissquote gain access to a balanced offering of easy-to-use proprietary trading platforms and popular third-party platforms like MetaTrader (both MT4 and MT5) and TradingView. Swissquote also delivers access to a staggering 3 million financial products, including stocks, options, futures, derivatives, ETFs, and structured products (though only a few hundred CFDs). With multiple Tier-1 regulatory licenses and a Trust Score rating of 99 (as well as the rare distinction of operating three banks), we consider Swissquote to be a highly trusted broker. It's worth noting that Swissquote's pricing is more expensive than what you'd find with low-cost forex brokers, and its forex account offers far fewer markets than Swissquote's eTrading account for share dealing.

Founded in 1999, FXCM (a Jefferies Group company) is a long-standing brand that caters to global forex and CFD traders. FXCM offers multiple trading platforms for algorithmic trading and social copy trading, along with a proprietary platform suite (and access to MetaTrader 4). FXCM is also a great option for beginners due to its wide range of educational materials and easy-to-use platforms (including integration with the popular TradingView platform). Though the range of markets available at FXCM has increased following the addition of its share trading feature, it's worth noting that pricing at FXCM is just average.

Tier-1 is reserved for the strictest, most stringent regulatory jurisdictions in the world. Tier-1 regulators impose additional capital requirements and require a tougher initial screening process. Swissquote holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Hong Kong (SFC Authorised), Singapore (MAS Authorised) and United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised). FXCM, on the other hand, is licensed in these Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised), Canada (CIRO Authorised) and United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised). Neither have CBI Authorised (Ireland), Japan (SFC Authorised), New Zealand (FMA Authorised), Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) and USA (CFTC Authorized)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, Swissquote is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised) and UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised), while FXCM is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised) and South Africa (FSCA Authorised).. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised) and Thailand (SEC Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses unfortunately, neither Swissquote nor FXCM are Bahamas (SCB Authorised), Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA Authorised), British Virgin Islands (FSC Authorised), Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised), Mauritius (FSC Authorised) and Vanuatu (VFSC Authorised).. Neither have Vanuatu (VFSC Authorised).

Whether your broker develops its own proprietary platforms or provides access to popular third-party platforms, you should make sure you can use your preferred type of trading platform. In our testing, we found that Swissquote offers a Proprietary Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows), whereas FXCM supports a Proprietary Platform, Desktop Platform (Windows) and ZuluTrade. Neither have cTrader and DupliTrade

For MetaTrader Swissquote provides MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), while FXCM provides MetaTrader 4 (MT4). If MetaTrader is a must for you, read our guides on the best MT4 brokers or best MT5 brokers.

Swissquote requires a minimum deposit of $1000, while FXCM requires a minimum deposit of Starts from $50. You'll also want to make sure that your broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. In our testing, we've found that both Swissquote and FXCM offer Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) for deposits

When choosing a forex broker, it’s important to consider each broker’s available investment products and tradeable asset classes. We’ve researched each broker’s individual offering of investments to help you pick the right broker for what you want to trade. During our testing, we found that Swissquote delivers a more diverse selection of investment options than FXCM, offering tradeable asset classes and investment types such as Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Social Trading / Copy Trading, Metals, Energies, Agriculturals, ETF and U.S. Stocks (CFD).

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; Swissquote offers 472, and FXCM offers a total of 440 tradeable symbols.

Crypto trading has become popular among forex traders across a range of international jurisdictions. As a result, many forex brokers now offer crypto products to their clients; most crypto assets are offered either as an underlying physical asset (such as when you own actual bitcoin assets, for example) or as a derivative product like a CFD. If you are looking to trade physical cryptocurrencies, you’ll find that Swissquote offers clients access to trading physical cryptocurrencies while FXCM does not.

Market research plays a huge role in any forex trader’s ability to conduct analysis within the global forex market. We test each broker’s research offering to help you decide which broker is right for your technical or fundamental analysis needs. Swissquote delivers the following research tools: Autochartist, Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources), Trading Central (Recognia) and Social Trading / Copy Trading. FXCM, on the other hand, provides the tools listed here: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources), Trading Central (Recognia) and Social Trading / Copy Trading

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