FOREX.com Review

Forex.com Ratings at a Glance

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74 to 76% 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.

The products and services available to you at FOREX.com will depend on your location and on which of its regulated entities holds your account.

FOREX.com at a Glance

Why FOREX.com Over Others?

Should you open an account? Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of working with this broker.

• Wide range of currency pairs to trade: Buy and sell over 80 currency pairs in the U.S. only. It’s 1 of the most comprehensive currency trading providers in the world.
• Comprehensive list of indicators: Those who use technical analysis to inform their trading will appreciate the technical indicator offerings with over 90 individual indicators to choose from. You can add indicators to a currency pair’s chart with a single click and can add multiple indicators to a chart.
• Plenty of educational tools: Forex trading can be intimidating to beginners. FOREX.com offers an impressive selection of research and education tools for traders at every expertise level. From live webinars to beginner and advanced risk management courses, every trader can learn something new when they open an account with this broker. 
• TradingView charts: You have access to TradingView charts from which you may make trades and manage your portfolio.
• Exclusive trading tools: You have access to the exclusive trading tools NinjaTrader, SMART Signals, Trading Central and Performance Analytics .

Is FOREX.com Safe?

FOREX.com is a DBA name of GAIN Capital Group LLC, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly-traded parent company StoneX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SNEX). The company is regulated in 4 tier-1 jurisdictions, including the U.S., Canada and the UK. This makes FOREX.com an unusually safe FX broker to trade through.

All customer deposits at FOREX.com are kept separate from their own operating funds and distributed across a global network of custodian banks and brokers.

FOREX.com makes money from the dealing or bid-ask spread. For currency pairs, the bid is the highest exchange rate the broker will pay, while the ask is the lowest exchange rate the broker will sell at. The difference between the bid and ask rates is called the “dealing spread”.

A Standard account is commission-free, and you have the choice of anaccount if you plan on using the broker’s proprietary platforms, a MetaTrader 4 or a MetaTrader 5 account if you prefer that platform. They also charge lower average dealing spreads than many competing brokers, although its spreads are variable, so they can change depending on foreign exchange market conditions.

You may be able to access spreads as low as 0.0 in a Commission account, while minimum spreads in Standard accounts are around the 1.0 mark, depending on the currency pair. The amount of money you can expect to pay in commissions varies depending on how often you will be trading. Most stock traders will be familiar with a commission structure, and comparing dealing spreads is a common way to assess pricing among forex brokers. 

Using leverage by trading on margin is a common method forex traders use to control larger positions with a given amount of trading capital. This lets them amplify profits (or losses) and make more meaningful trades as a result. 

Margin requirements at FOREX.com vary depending on the currency pair you’re trading. For example, the margin requirement for a position in the USD/CAD pair is 2%. This means that for every $100,000 position you wish to hold, you need to maintain a deposit of at least $2,000 in your margin account. That also implies a leverage ratio of 50:1.

The minimum balance required to open an account with FOREX.com is 100 units of your base currency. If you’re a U.S. trader, this means that you can open an account with as little as $100. However, they recommend that most traders maintain at least $2,500 in their accounts, which helps prevent automatic position closeouts due to a lack of available margin. 

Active Trader Program: Also offered is an Active Trader Program. This allows traders with a balance of at least $10,000 in their account to receive a cash rebate on their traded volume. 

Keep in mind that spread and raw pricing are the only account types available to U.S. customers. Remember, too, that CFDs are not available in the U.S.

FOREX.com supports the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platform suites and also provides clients with its own comprehensive trading platforms designed for currency traders, with both a web-based and mobile platform available. The trading platform offers advanced trading tools and performance analytics to enhance the trading experience.

To find a currency pair using the web trading platform, just type it into the search bar. Bids and ask rates are laid out clearly and update every few seconds to give you the most accurate quotes possible.

Executing a trade through the platform is simple. Just click on the currency pair you want to trade, enter the amount of currency you’d like to exchange and execute your trade. When you close out a position, it will show you a small summary of your trade and your overall net loss or gain.

Experienced and intermediate traders will love the impressive range of technical indicators. From moving averages to the Ichimoku Cloud, you can use over 90 indicators to help inform your trading. You can even add multiple indicators to a single chart with just a few clicks.

Although the platforms offer tons of indicators, little explanation is provided within them as to what each is used for and how to interpret them. Read through the extensive education section for additional help, since the platform is aimed primarily at traders who already have a strong grasp of the forex market and technical analysis. 

Opening an account is also quite straightforward. U.S.-based applicants will need to fill out some basic information on an online form and provide details about their trading experience. They will also need their ID, social security number or ITIN, and their employer’s name, if applicable. 

If your ID isn’t readable, it may take up to 1 week to finish opening your account. Once your account is open, you can link your bank account or debit card, fund your account and start making trades. 

You’ll likely be impressed with the research and education offerings. Let’s take a look at 3 helpful features the brokerage offers for trader education.

• Multi-level trading education courses: Offers a comprehensive range of trader education courses organized by experience and skill level. You can find beginner, intermediate and advanced-level courses directly on its website. Beginner lessons start by introducing basic forex concepts like pips and the most commonly traded currency pairs, while advanced courses move into trading strategies and risk management. Courses are easy to interpret and follow, no matter your skill level or previous experience. Many courses also include YouTube video tutorials to facilitate your learning process. Best of all, each of the courses is free — you don’t even need to be logged into your account to begin learning.
• Research tools: Many forex traders use fundamental analysis tools to inform their trades. FOREX.com’s brokerage platform includes an organized and comprehensive news feed that is customizable to focus on your favorite currency pairs. Begin by selecting your currency pair of choice and opening a new workspace. On the right-hand side of your screen, you’ll instantly see the latest news headlines concerning either of the currencies listed in your pair. Click on each news headline to read directly from your forex trading app and then flip back to your workstation in a fraction of a second to execute trades. 

• Live webinars. Prefer to get the classroom experience when you learn how to trade? FOREX.com hosts regular live webinars at every skill level to help you boost your trading know-how. Topics range from basic forex strategy to trading psychology and risk management. You can quickly book your space at each webinar by entering your name, email address and phone number on the website. Like its trading education courses, webinars are hosted free of charge for all participants.

FOREX.com currently offers 3 customer service contact methods.

• Phone: Call 877-367-3946, and select option 1.
• Email: Send a message to support@FOREX.com.
• Chat: Send a text message via the website. Just look for the green rectangle on the right side of the page to get started. 

Customer service is continuously available from 10 a.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Friday ET.

Prefer to do your trading on the go? The platform offers a comprehensive mobile app that fully mirrors its web platform’s capabilities. Let’s take a look at a few of our favorite features you’ll be able to take advantage of when you download the FOREX.com mobile app.

• Fast, integrated interface. Its mobile app features all of the tools of the desktop platform formatted to fit a smaller mobile screen. Buy, sell, perform currency research and view charts all from the palm of your hand.
• Easy customization. When you have limited time to make trades, you probably don’t want to spend minutes searching for currency pairs or tapping away at a tiny screen. FOREX.com’s mobile app offers a number of customization tools you can use to make the app your own. Choose between light and dark themes, add currency pairs to your watchlist, and customize your home screen to only show markets or currencies you’re interested in, all with only a few taps.
• Alert features. Prefer to trade without staring at your screen all day? The app also allows you to customize exchange rate level, movement and order trigger alerts. When an alert is triggered, you’ll receive a push notification informing you of a movement or that your order has been executed.

The mobile app is available for both iOS and Android platforms and is free to download. 

In addition to the incredible educational opportunities provided, you can apply everything you’ve learned by trading directly in the forex market. You can also benefit from trading and learning in the same place because there’s no need to learn two different platforms. 

You can trade around the clock during forex market hours, speculate on currency pairs without taking delivery and use a leverage ratio of up to 50:1.

The broker’s website and trading platforms show market dealing spreads in real time. You can trade with or without commissions (with your choice of a Standard or a RAW account), live chat with FOREX.com’s staff, and join social media communities to learn more about how to trade forex profitably.

The user experience starts well with the green live chat bar at the right side of its website page and on the mobile app. You can easily visit every page on the site with a few clicks, and the site’s useful educational information should help you make more money speculating on exchange rates. 

In short, FOREX.com gives you top-quality trading platforms and a solid foundation from which to grow as a forex trader and hopefully apply your knowledge to increase your net worth. 

It’s important to remember what the broker is and what it isn’t. FOREX.com focuses its resources on currency trading — and in this arena, it excels. Lower-than-average dealing spreads and a comprehensive trading platform will delight the most experienced forex trader.

Novices will also appreciate the comprehensive range of educational tools and resources. Mobile traders will also be impressed with the app, which mirrors the functionality of the broker’s advanced web-based trading platform. You can even use the MT4and MT5 suite. FOREX.com is among one of the only brokers offering MT5 to U.S. traders.

This platform focuses on currencies, so it makes no effort to be a trader’s 1-stop-shop for every investing need, although the broker does provide trading in spot gold and silver “unleveraged”, as well as futures and options via its affiliate the Small Exchange.

FOREX.com has some limitations, but it offers impressive platforms for trading currencies and excellent educational options both beginners and experienced traders can appreciate.

FOREX.com vs. Competitors

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