Forex.com Review – Is it Legit? (August 2024)
Robust Trading Platforms for the New and Professional Trader
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Overall Rating
FAST FACTS
Account Minimum: $50
Fees: Average EUR/USD spread is 1.3 pips
Best For: The very active forex trader
Warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 79% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Capital at risk.
Forex trading involves significant risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors.
Forex.com is one of the most longstanding brokers in the industry. They have been providing access to the forex market for traders since 2001. They now operate on a worldwide scale providing service to traders in more than 150 countries. They are also one of the few major forex brokers to offer services to US-based traders.
To match their worldwide service availability, the broker is also regulated by numerous top-tier regulatory bodies including some of the most respected in the industry. There is trusted regulation in place in both the US and Canada too which helps protect traders based there. The brokers reputation for transparency and trust, combined with a strong product offering and excellent trading costs, put it in prime position at the head of a very competitive sector.
Sadly, the regulation is where Forex.com shines, when it comes to customer service, investment options, and other issues, they are pretty horrible. We actually recommend that investors stay far away from this broker.
Pros
- Great mobile and desktop functionality
- Top trading platforms both third-party, and proprietary available
- Well-regulated including in the US and Canada
Cons
- Limited choice of account types available
- No stock trading available in USA
- Fixed spreads start high on commodities.
- High inactivity fees.
Trust
A key ingredient which any broker must provide you as a trader, is security. All of the top forex brokers in the industry work hard to ensure you have the safest, most secure trading experience possible, and Forex.com is no different. They are an extremely well-regulated broker around the world through a variety of entities. The FCA regulates the UK entity, while ASIC regulate the Australian operations. The brokers’ international entity is regulated by CIMA in the Cayman Islands, and the US entity is overseen by the NFA and CFTC. Finally, Canadian operations are regulated by IIROC.
This comprehensive regulation around the world, exceeds what is offered by many brokers, and demonstrates the seriousness with which Forex.com takes your trading experience. Further to this, you will have the benefit of negative balance protection which stops you from ever losing more than you deposit. Your funds will also be held securely within segregated accounts at top banks which means they are fully protected in the event of any serious financial problems on the broker end. If you are trading under the Forex.com UK entity, you will also be protected by ICF insurance which is provided and covers your funds up to £85,000.
While the above is great, we still find that Forex.com uses misleading advertising, promising more than they deliver.
Investment Products
Forex.com manages to cover a wide range of areas in decent depth when it comes to the assets you will have available to trade. There are in excess of 80 forex currency pairs available, and more commodities and indices to trade as CFDs as well as a few of the major cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP) which can all be traded against the USD, and Bitcoin against GBP, EUR, and AUD too.
Where Forex.com really comes alive though is in stocks trading. They have a massive selection of stocks available in top global companies that you can trade. The total number of stocks that can be traded is around 4,500. This is a larger selection than many of the other top forex brokers in the sector, and although they are not available to US-based traders, this is a very attractive point for many who join the broker. If you are an active trader, you will also benefit from the rewarding active trader program offered by the broker. This can help you greatly reduce trading costs depending on your volume.
That being said, commends from investors is that there’s a very low success rate of actually making successful trades.
Commission and Fees
Forex.com offer account types which are commission free, and also account types which have a competitive commission in place with reduced spreads. Further to this, the broker also offers a DMA account which provides the very best in terms of both trading costs, and with lightning fast trade execution.
They are one of only a few top forex brokers who offer both fixed and variable spreads depending on the asset you are trading, and the account type you have opened. The fixed spreads on offer are available on commodities, and start from 5 pips. The variable spreads though present great value starting from 0.2 pips on major forex markets. If you are trading through one of the Forex.com account types which does apply a commission, then you can expect this to start from $5 per lot traded on a commission account, and $6 per lot traded on a DMA account, though there is scope for the latter to drop to as little as $2 per lot traded, depending on the volume.
When it comes to fees, they typically try to maintain an environment where there are no deposit or withdrawal fees. Overnight fees, as with all CFDs brokers, are charged depending on the asset and the market, and the other fee charged is an inactivity fee. This can run slightly higher than most at $15 per month if you have not been active for a 12-month period.
Trading Platform
Forex.com offers both recognized and respected third-party trading platform choices in the form of Metatrader 4, and Metatrader 5, as well as their own proprietary trading platform.
Both Metatrader platforms are very well-known in the industry and have earned much praise over the years for their detailed approach to charting with more than 50 charting tools and indicators available as standard. Beyond this, both are also very robust, efficient trading platforms to use which are popular in the industry and will run on almost any machine. The platforms are available in desktop, webtrader, and mobile form.
These are the same platforms that are used for the majority of forex/CFD brokers, so nothing new at all is introduced, it is just the same old.
Customer Support
In terms of customer support, the broker provides English or Chinese language customer support. Beyond that however, Forex.com has a well-provided FAQ section on their website which can answer most generic questions you may have. If you do need to get in contact, you can do so through a web-based live chat service, phone, or email.
While the support is responsive… it is our experience that they do not deliver. Expect to run around in circles with your questions and receive unsatisfactory responses.
Forex.com support is available from 10am GMT on Sunday, to 5pm GMT on Friday, and questions can be emailed outside those times. The web-based live chat is bot-powered, but this can be overridden and you will be transferred to an agent if you type in the chat box as opposed to choosing a pre-selected option.
Education
Education is an important component which can have an influence not only on your current experience at a broker, but also your future in forex trading. To this end, Forex.com does an excellent job in providing strong educational content suited to all levels of trader which can be beneficial. They do this through providing a wide range of written content which is of a high quality and divided into topics around all areas of trading, strategies, analysis, and trading platforms. This content is further divided by level, with materials available for beginners, intermediate, and advanced traders.
Summary
Overall, it can be said that Forex.com, as well as being one of the most experienced brokers in the industry with almost two decades providing service is also one of the more disappointing brokers around.
They don’t really care that you may lose money on their platform since they offer CFDs and no actual way to hold stock.
Accepted Countries: United States, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Singapore, United Kingdom, India, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Denmark, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Qatar and most other countries.
Prohibited Countries: Belgium, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire.
Regulated By:
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This is an independent U.S. federal agency established by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Act of 1974. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates the commodity futures and options markets.
- Member of the National Futures Association (NFA #0339826). The NFA is the industry-wide, self-regulatory organization for the U.S. derivatives industry, providing innovative and effective regulatory programs.
- Member of Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC)
- Regulated by The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA). This is the primary financial services regulator of the Cayman Islands.