Best CFD Brokers
Here you will find our best CFD brokers list, based on thousands of hours of extensive research, testing and analysis across hundreds of online CFD brokers. Upon conclusion of each of our CFD broker reviews, the trading brokers team has assigned each CFD broker with a rating, and displayed our best CFD brokers on this page.
Some of the most important factors that contribute towards a good CFD broker have been considered including the regulatory authority, trading instruments offered, online trading platforms, trading tools, fees, spreads, execution speeds, account types, funding options, leverage, minimum deposit, educational materials, customer service and more.
Having the best CFD brokers based on our findings listed in one place can help CFD traders save time when identifying the best CFD brokerages according to their individual online trading needs.
#1 Best Trading Broker Award 2021
AvaTrade is an award-winning trading broker that is regulated in 6 jurisdictions offering 250+ instruments across multiple markets & trading platforms for web, desktop & mobile devices. They have low fees, tight spreads & rapid trade execution speeds.
Top 5 CFD Brokers
ASIC, BVI, CBI, FFAJ, FSA, FSCA
Min $100 Deposit
2006
1:400
FCA, CFTC, NFA, BaFin, FINMA, ASIC, FMA, MAS, FSA, FSCA, DFSA, JFSA, METI, MAFF
Min $250 Deposit
1974
1:200
ASIC, FCA, DFSA, SCB, CySEC, BaFin, CMA
Min $200 Deposit
2010
1:500
ASIC, CySEC, IFSC
Min $5 Deposit
2009
1:880
Each of our chosen best CFD brokers have undergone and passed our stringent CFD broker reviews with flying colours, based on what the trading brokers team consider to be amongst the most important considerations. These CFD brokers are under strict regulation from some of the most respectable online broker regulatory authorities and are well-established within the online brokerage industry, providing top CFD trading services to CFD traders across the globe.
AvaTrade
AvaTrade is included in our best CFD brokers list. They offer award winning online trading services on a large variety of CFD instruments including forex, commodities, indices, ETFs, stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies and more. Customer service is offered 24/5 with multi-lingual live support and a dedicated account manager.
AvaTrade give traders access to multiple free trading platforms including the most popular and widely used MetaTrader 4 platform. This is a very user-friendly platform thus making online CFD trading easily accessible to traders of all experience levels. In addition to various online trading platforms, they also offer a good selection of trading tools and educational materials to assist with trading online.
Best CFD Brokers: AvaTrade Review
AvaTrade have licenses from 6 regulatory authorities spanning 5 continents. Amongst these, they are authorised and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). This strict regulation across multiple jurisdictions can give clients peace of mind that they are using a safe and secure CFD broker.
AvaTrade are one of the largest CFD brokers in the world providing online CFD trading to over 200,000 clients across the globe. There is a demo account option should you wish to practice before opening a real account. You can read our full AvaTrade Review to find out more about why we consider them to be one of our best CFD brokers for online trading.
| Pros | Cons |
| Large range of CFD instruments for trading online | No US clients |
| Award winning brokerage | Min $100 deposit |
| Multiple trading platforms | |
| Educational materials | |
| Free trading tools for analysing charts | |
| Regulation by 6 authorities |
#1 Best Trading Broker Award 2021
AvaTrade is an award-winning trading broker that is regulated in 6 jurisdictions offering 250+ instruments across multiple markets & trading platforms for web, desktop & mobile devices. They have low fees, tight spreads & rapid trade execution speeds.
IG
IG get a well-deserved place on our best CFD brokers list for offering industry leading CFD trading services to a global clientele, including the USA. They have been around since way back in 1974 and are regulated in multiple jurisdictions. IG traders get a choice of powerful yet user-friendly platforms for trading CFDs including Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals and Energies.
The platforms include IG’s proprietary trading platform, ProRealTime (PRT), L2 Dealer or the very popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform. The platforms contain a vast array of built-in tools for conducting in-depth market analysis. They are available on desktop, web and mobile devices. The broker also offers direct market access (DMA) for professional traders who would like to deal directly into the order books of major equity exchanges.
Best CFD Brokers: IG Trading Platform
You can trade over 16,000 CFD instruments with tight spreads, low fees, reliable execution speeds and leveraged positions. There is a choice of trading accounts to suit different trader requirements and convenient funding options.
The broker has a generous selection of trading tools that can be used to help reinforce trading decisions, keep up to date on market events with real time Reuters news and inform your trading with expert market analysis.
There is the IG Academy which is a free resource that has a large collection of easy to digest educational materials to help traders to develop their trading skills and knowledge. This shows that the broker cares about clients making informed trading decisions. 24-hour client support can be reached via email, telephone or live chat. You can read our full IG Review to find out more.
| Pros | Cons |
| Regulated broker | No fixed spread accounts |
| CFD trading platforms for desktop, web & mobile devices | $250 minimum deposit |
| Tight spreads, low fees & fast execution speeds | |
| Large range of 16,000+ CFD trading instruments | |
| USA traders welcome | |
| CFD trading tools to assist traders | |
| Generous selection of CFD educational resources |
IG offer traders around the globe over 16,000+ markets including Forex & CFDs. They have a good selection of trading platforms, tools & educational resources. Spreads are tight, commission is low & execution speeds are fast. IG are also regulated in many countries including FCA, ASIC & NFA regulation.
Pepperstone
Australian based Pepperstone makes it into our best CFD brokers list. They offer CFD trading on two of the best online trading platforms, MetaTrader 4 and cTrader. You can trade CFDs through one account on multiple platforms should you wish. This makes it useful should you wish to trade on the go using the web and mobile applications.
Despite primary focus on being a forex broker, Pepperstone offer a selection of CFDs for trading online via their multi award winning trading accounts with no dealing desk execution. They offer tight spreads, low fees and fast execution speeds. They are well known for providing innovative technology to traders around the world.
Pepperstone developed their CFD trading technology specifically for traders looking to execute large CFD orders with minimal slippage. They offer ultra-low latency execution from a deep pool of liquidity providers and no dealing desk interference. This makes them highly desirable to clients who need to trade large sizes on single ticket orders. They can handle multiple fills for sweeping large orders through multiple levels within their liquidity aggregator.
Best CFD Brokers: Pepperstone Review
They provide online traders with 24-hour customer support and funding through multiple different methods including bank transfer, credit/debit card and online payment processors. Pepperstone are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). This strict regulation helps to reassure client that they are using an established and respectable CFD broker.
We are proud to include the highly respected Pepperstone broker in our best CFD brokers list. You can read our detailed Pepperstone Review to find out more about the reasons why we consider them one of the best CFD brokers available to traders across the globe.
| Pros | Cons |
| Large order sizes | No US clients |
| Ultra-low latency execution | No fixed spread accounts |
| Deep pool of liquidity providers | $200 minimum deposit |
| No dealing desk | |
| Tight spreads & low fees | |
| Strict regulation |
Pepperstone is one of the largest trading brokers providing traders worldwide access to trade across all markets with cutting edge technology, low cost spreads, low-latency high speed execution and award-winning customer service.
XM Group
XM Group are one of our best CFD brokers. This CFD brokerage offers a staggering 1,000+ CFD instruments so there is something for every type of trader. The CFDs they offer include forex, indices, commodities, stocks, cryptocurrencies (including popular choices such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ripple XRP). This is a vast amount of CFD trading instruments compare to any other online broker.
XM Group offer online CFD trading through the most popular online trading platforms including MetaTrader. They implement a no-requote policy to ensure that trades have minimal slippage and are executed at the best possible prices. The XM Zero account has the tightest spreads starting from just zero pips which can help to bring down overall CFD trading costs.
Best CFD Brokers: XM Group Review
XM Group claim to have over 2.5 million clients from 196 countries across the globe. This makes them one of the largest CFD brokers in the world. They have strict regulation from 3 of the top regulatory authorities XM Group are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
XM Group is well known as a transparent and client focused online CFD broker with trading conditions being of primary importance to them. They provide clients with an abundance of additional trading tools for efficient analysis of different CFD charts. They also have many convenient methods for account deposit and withdrawal including online payment processors such as Skrill and PayPal.
There are many more reasons why we consider XM Group as one of our best CFD brokers. You can read our full XM Group Review to find out more and to discover if they are a CFD broker that you would like to open a trading account with.
| Pros | Cons |
| No-requotes policy, tight spreads, low fees | No US clients |
| 1,000+ CFD instruments | No fixed spread accounts |
| Strict regulation | |
| Sophisticated trading tools | |
| Multiple account funding options | |
| Min $5 deposit |
XM Group is a multi-award winning globally established and regulated trading broker with over 2.5m clients from 196 countries offering no-requotes, low spreads, fast execution and negative balance protection.
IC Markets
We have included IC Markets in our best CFD brokers lists for many reasons, primarily due to the fact that they have been offering competitive trading conditions for a very long time. As a regulated broker, they offer clients CFD trading online via user-friendly trading platforms in an ECN trading environment with no dealing desk intervention. This means that the broker can deliver tight spreads and quick trade execution speeds so that positions are executed at the best available prices from a deep liquidity pool that includes over 50+ liquidity providers. IC Markets offer the MetaTrader and cTrader platforms which are 2 of the best trading platforms available today.
Best CFD Brokers: IC Markets CFD Platforms
In addition to innovative trading technologies, the brokers CFD trading service includes trading tools, educational materials, various account types, flexible account funding options and multilingual support 24/5 via phone, chat and email. You can read our full IC Markets Review to find out more.
| Pros | Cons |
| 230+ CFD trading instruments | No US clients |
| ECN broker | No fixed spread accounts |
| User friendly CFD trading platforms | Min $200 deposit |
| Regulated CFD broker | |
| Educational resources & trading tools |
IC Markets is the world’s largest true ECN trading broker offering over 230 trading instruments across multiple markets on the most popular trading platforms, delivering low spreads and high liquidity for fast trade execution.
How did Trading Brokers choose our best CFD brokers?
Following on from our best CFD brokers list, we will now look at what CFDs are and the most important factors to consider when looking for an online CFD broker.
What is a CFD?
CFD means Contract For Difference which is a financial instrument that allows you to trade and try to benefit from the movement in price of commodities (e.g. Gold, silver & oil), indices, stocks (e.g. Facebook, Barclays, Vodafone, Tesla), fx currencies, cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum), ETFs, options, bonds and more. The introduction of CFDs made it possible for online traders to have access to a wide range of markets that were not previously available to them.
When trading CFDs, you do not actually purchase or own the underlying asset, you are speculating on the price movement, up or down. A CFD is a contract to between two parties to pay the difference between the value of the current price and future price
CFD is similar to forex trading in many aspects and are traded through an online brokers trading platform. You simply select the trading instrument that you wish to trade and place your orders. If you believe an instrument will increase in price, you would look to enter a buy (long) position. If you thought the instrument would decline in value then you would look to enter a sell (short) position. The profit or loss is realised depending on the difference between the entry and exit prices when you close the trade. CFDs can be bought or sold at any time that you deem suitable as they do not have an expiry date.
CFDs have become very popular in recent years, especially for day traders. The high leverage and low costs associated with trading CFDs online make them an attractive proposition to retail and institutional traders.
What makes a good CFD broker?
CFD broker regulation
It is vitally important to ensure that you are using a trusted and established online CFD broker. Many online brokers come and go over the years so it is considered a wise idea to use a regulated broker that has been in business for a long time. The most respected regulatory authorities to look for include the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A regulated broker has to conduct business according to strict rules and investors are more protected.
If a broker is listed on an exchange they have to abide by stricter regulations with frequent audits. Furthermore, if the broker is part of a banking group then they must meet specific capital requirements with the upmost transparency.
CFD broker trading instruments
Each online CFD broker will provide a wide range of different instruments, so make sure that the broker you are considering offers the instruments that you wish to trade. If you want to invest in Facebook CFDs or Tesla CFDs, make sure they are offered. It is also worth considering if you will branch out into other markets in the future. If a broker offers multiple markets then it would make the transition in the future more convenient. As there are so many markets to trade, CFD trading hours run 24 hours a day. You will therefore want to make sure your brokers trading hours cover as many of these hours as possible, if not all.
CFD broker trading fees
When trading CFDs online, there are three main fees you need to factor in. This is the spread, commission and overnight holding fee (swap). Not all brokers will charge all fees but it is important to factor these fees into your trading costs. Fees can vary significantly on each broker so it is a good idea to consider them when choosing a suitable broker.
CFD broker spreads
The spread is the difference between the buy and sell (bid/ask) price which can vary depending on the current liquidity and brokers mark-up if applicable. Generally, the more liquidity, the more competitive the spreads will be. Be aware that some brokers use dealing desks and will add a mark-up to the spread to cover operational costs.
CFD broker commissions
The commission is a fee you pay to the broker for each trade that you place. This is the primary way in which brokers make their money. Commission is usually charged as a percentage of the trade or a fixed amount, sometimes a combination of both. The lower the commission fee, the lower your overall trading costs are likely to be.
CFD broker swaps
If you hold a position overnight you will need to pay a swap fee. This is an interest fee for the procedure of moving open positions from one day to another, also known as the rollover. Many CFD traders are day trading so they do not hold positions overnight but if you plan to do so, this is another cost to consider. Some brokers offer swap free Islamic trading accounts which allow Muslims to engage in online trading that conforms with Sharia law
Other CFD broker fees
Some brokers will charge additional fees which are worth considering such as withdrawal and inactivity fees.
CFD broker trading platforms
Each online CFD broker will offer a range of free online trading platforms. You should ensure that they offer a trading platform that you are familiar with. If you have no previous experience using a trading platform, MetaTrader 4 is one of the most popular due to its user friendliness and advanced features. Some brokers provide their very own proprietary platforms such as eToro, Plus500 and AvaTrade. If you plan to trade on the go, then you should check that they offer web and mobile version of your desired trading platform.
Trading platforms can vary in features, some will offer advanced charting tools for detailed market analysis whilst others can incorporate news feeds and other features to assist with your trading. Depending on your individual trading requirements, make sure the platform offers all of the tools you need to trade with efficiency. It could be a good idea to open demo accounts on multiple platforms to compare them and see which you deem more suitable for your own needs.
CFD broker leverage
CFD brokers allow you to trade on leverage which means that you can open a position larger than your account size would allow without it. With an account balance of just $100, you could open a position of $1,000 using 1:10 leverage. Whilst leverage can increase profits, it also increases risk and can lead to large losses. It is of upmost importance that that you have a thorough understanding of what leverage is and the risks involved before you start trading CFDs. Check the broker offers a leverage that you require for your trading strategies.
CFD trade example
If you wanted to trade a stock with an asking price of $20 and buy 100 shares, this would traditionally have cost $2,000 ($20 x 100). With a CFD broker who requires 5% margin, you could open this position with just $100 ($2,000 / 100 * 5). Leverage will vary between brokers and you will need to factor the spread, commission, swap and any other fees into each trade.
Most reputable CFD brokers will offer negative balance protection, which ensures that you will not end up owing your broker more than your initial account balance. They will close out your trades once your margin is used up to prevent further losses.
CFD broker education
Many CFD brokers will provide their own educational materials such as CFD trading guides, webinars and seminars. This can help beginner traders learn more whilst honing their trading skills. Even the more advanced traders can benefit from further education.
CFD broker trading tools
Some CFD brokers will offer clients trading tools that can assist with trading. These tools range from technical chart analysis and economic calendars. If you would like additional tools, see what a broker has to offer and if these come and an extra cost or are free to existing clients.
CFD broker account opening
Each CFD broker will have its own minimum deposit policy so check that you can meet this requirement.
CFD broker account funding
Methods of funding and withdrawing from your online trading account can vary from one CFD broker to another. Check what methods they offer and ensure that it is suitable and convenient for you. Some brokers will offer online payment processors such as PayPal and Skrill which and be processed faster than other methods which can take up to 5 days.
CFD broker customer service
As the CFD market contains so many different instruments and runs 24 hours a day, you will need to ensure that the broker has adequate customer support to answer your questions as and when necessary. Consider the location of the broker and what days/time they offer their support. Ideally, the broker should provide support in multiple languages, at least 24 hours a day and 5 days a week. Check that they have a method of contacting support that is most convenient for you. Online chat can be quick and easy, but some traders may prefer to speak to someone over the phone.
ESMA Regulations
New regulations and measures are constantly being put in place to protect retail CFD traders. European regulators want to clamp down on how CFD brokers conduct their business and how products are offered to clients. Research from European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) shows that around 80 to 95% of investors are losing their investment which is not always through fault of their own.
Specifically, when a broker uses a dealing desk there can be a conflict of interest. Instead of executing a trade directly to the liquidity providers, it goes through a dealing desk which can lead to delays (slippage) and spread mark-ups. This makes it even more difficult for retail traders which is another reason why it is so important to choose a reliable broker.
Amongst the new rules introduced in 2018 by ESMA for European traders are:
Leverage Limits
The maximum amount of leverage offered to European CFD traders has been capped. Some brokers will lift this limit if you meet certain requirements and qualify as a professional trader. To qualify you would usually have needed to have conducted a large amount of transactions, have a significant portfolio and experience in the financial industry.
- 30:1 for major currency pairs
- 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold and major stock indices
- 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major stock indices;
- 5:1 for single stocks and any underlying not otherwise mentioned
- 2:1 for cryptocurrencies
Margin Limit
A margin close out rule on a per account basis. This will standardise the percentage of margin (at 50% of minimum required margin) at which providers are required to close out one or more retail client’s open CFDs.
Negative balance protection
Negative balance protection on a per account basis. This will provide an overall guaranteed limit on retail client losses.
Restriction on marketing and incentives
Brokers must clearly state the percentage of clients who are losing money and not offer any incentives to attract new clients to trade CFDs.
Best CFD Brokers: CFD Trading Online
How to start trading CFDs online?
Now that you have had a brief overview of what CFDs are, you may be considering opening an online trading account which is a quick and easy process. Simply choose an online CFD broker, follow the account opening process and you will be able to start trading CFDs online through one of their trading platforms.
Need help choosing from the best CFD brokers?
If you are still unsure which is the best CFD broker for you then you can use our free online broker comparison tool to quickly compare online brokers based on regulations, minimum deposit, leverage, spreads, commissions, funding options and more. You can also read our broker reviews and choose from our best brokers, best trading platforms, best copy trading platforms, best social trading platforms and best trading apps. If you would like to look for the best trading brokers in a particular country, we have pages dedicated to our best brokers USA, best brokers UK, best brokers Australia, best brokers South Africa and best brokers Canada.
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