FOREX.com review

Spread from

0.0 pips

EUR/USD spread

Approx. 0.8 pips, Standard

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 1.1 pips, Standard

Commission

$3.50 per side / $7 round turn, RAW

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 0.7 pips, RAW

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight rollover may be charged or credited

Inactivity fee

$15/month after 12 months inactivity

Withdrawal fee

None internally

Currency conversion

0.5%

Cost is where brokers in the same regulatory bracket actually differ.

A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

FOREX.com lists a minimum deposit of $100. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Markets

Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Metals, Cryptocurrencies, Bonds/Rates

Currency pairs

80

Total instruments

6,300+

Crypto CFDs

Yes, jurisdiction-dependent

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

Market maker / principal

Execution speed

Under 1 second

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop, guaranteed stop-loss where available

Servers

Global financial data-centre infrastructure

Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

FOREX.com covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, metals, cryptocurrencies, bonds/rates. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: debit/credit card, bank transfer, wire transfer and jurisdiction-specific electronic payment methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Platforms

FOREX.com Web Trading, FOREX.com mobile app, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Both proprietary and third-party

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes; MT4/MT5 Expert Advisors and automated trading

Copy trading

No

Indicators

80+ proprietary platform; 100+ via TradingView; MT4/MT5 indicators

Third-party tools

TradingView, Trading Central, Reuters, FX Blue, Performance Analytics

API access

Yes, REST API; institutional FIX connectivity

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

MetaTrader 5 handles more asset classes and order types than MT4, but expert advisors are not compatible between the two - an MT4 EA will not run on it.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

Regulated by

CFTC/NFA (0339826); FCA; ASIC; CIRO; CIMA; MAS; JFSA; CySEC

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

NFA BASIC, NFA ID 0339826

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Global network of investment-grade custodian banks

Negative balance protection

Yes for eligible retail CFD clients; not universally applicable to US forex accounts

Compensation scheme

FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; CIPF protection for eligible Canadian clients; ICF up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients; no equivalent statutory US forex compensation scheme

Audited by

Deloitte & Touche LLP

Not available to

Jurisdiction-dependent; services unavailable where prohibited by local law, with CFD products unavailable to US residents

Across a hundred brokers, the licence is what separates the field fastest.

FOREX.com holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA, CySEC, MAS, CFTC/NFA and CIRO. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

It also operates an offshore entity (CIMA). Which one you are onboarded to depends on where you live, and the two carry very different protections - worth confirming before you deposit.

ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

CySEC licences passport across the EU and follow the 1:30 retail leverage cap, with the Investor Compensation Fund covering eligible claims.

Client money is held separately from the firm's own money, at Global network of investment-grade custodian banks. That separation is what makes your balance recoverable if the company fails, rather than part of the pool its creditors divide up.

Negative balance protection applies, so a losing position cannot take the account below zero and leave you owing the broker money.

Covered by FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; CIPF protection for eligible Canadian clients; ICF up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients; no equivalent statutory US forex compensation scheme, which pays eligible clients up to its limit if the firm fails owing client money.

Check the licence yourself: NFA BASIC, the FCA Register, ASIC Connect, the MAS Financial Institutions Directory, the CySEC register of investment firms.

Minimum deposit

$100

Account types

Standard/Spread-Only, RAW Pricing, MT4, MT5, Corporate, Professional, Demo

Account currencies

USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, JPY, CHF

Islamic account

Yes, in selected jurisdictions

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

1,000 currency units / 0.01 lot equivalent

Time to open

Typically a few minutes

FOREX.com runs 7 account types. More choice is not automatically better: the tightest headline spread almost always sits on the account that also charges a commission, so the comparison that matters is the two added together.

Base currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, JPY, CHF. Holding the account in the currency you fund it with avoids a conversion charge on every deposit and withdrawal - a cost that never shows up in a spread comparison.

The smallest position is 1,000 currency units / 0.01 lot equivalent. For anyone starting carefully this matters more than the minimum deposit, because it sets the least you can put at risk on a single trade.

A demo account is available. Worth using for the platform rather than the results: fills are simulated, so it tells you how the software behaves but very little about execution.

Deposit methods

Debit/credit card, bank transfer, wire transfer and jurisdiction-specific electronic payment methods

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, wire transfer, cards and supported original funding methods

Deposit time

Cards generally instant; bank transfers typically 1-2 business days; wires typically 1-2 business days

Withdrawal time

Typically 1-2 business days for processing, plus banking settlement time

Minimum withdrawal

$100 or remaining account balance if lower

Local payment methods

ACH in US; BPAY/PayID and local banking options in Australia; jurisdiction-specific methods elsewhere

Withdrawals are stated at Typically 1-2 business days for processing, plus banking settlement time, against Cards generally instant; bank transfers typically 1-2 business days; wires typically 1-2 business days for deposits. A gap between the two is normal and not in itself a warning sign - identity checks are a legal obligation, not obstruction. What is worth noticing is a withdrawal that keeps meeting new conditions after those checks are done.

Withdrawal routes: bank transfer, wire transfer, cards and supported original funding methods. Money is usually returned by the route it arrived on, so the deposit method you pick is in effect the withdrawal method you are picking too.

The minimum withdrawal is $100 or remaining account balance if lower - relevant if you intend to fund the account lightly, since it sets the smallest amount you can take out at a time.

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, email, phone

Languages

Multilingual

Telephone

+1 908 315 0653

Email

support@forex.com

Live chat response

Typically under 2 minutes

Education

Extensive: Trading Academy, courses, lessons, webinars, platform tutorials and educational articles

Research

Extensive: Reuters news, Trading Central, analyst views, technical insights, market analysis and Performance Analytics

Support runs 24/5. Round-the-clock cover matters more than it sounds: a position held over a weekend or through an unexpected halt is exactly when you need somebody to answer.

Reachable by live chat, email, phone. A published telephone number is the one channel that is hard to fake and hard to ignore, so whether there is one says more than the number of channels does.

Languages: Multilingual. Being able to raise a complaint in your own language is worth more than it appears, because complaints are where precision matters most.

Education: extensive: trading academy, courses, lessons, webinars, platform tutorials and educational articles. Treat broker-published material as an introduction rather than as advice - it is produced by a firm whose revenue rises when you trade more.

Legal entity

GAIN Capital Group LLC

Company number

NFA ID 0339826

Headquarters

Warren, New Jersey, United States

Founded

2001

Publicly listed

No, parent company is publicly listed

Parent company

StoneX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SNEX)

Employees

4,000+ across StoneX Group

Also trades as

FOREX.com; GAIN Capital

FOREX.com has been trading for around 25 years, through at least one full market cycle. Longevity guarantees nothing on its own, but a firm that came through 2008 and 2015 has been tested in a way a recent entrant has not.

The contracting entity is GAIN Capital Group LLC. This is the company you would actually have a relationship with, and it is worth checking that it is the same one named on the licence you are relying on: large brokers commonly operate several, and they are not equally protected.

Part of StoneX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SNEX). A parent adds resources, but the protections that apply to you are the ones attached to the entity that holds your account, not to the group.