Best Online Brokers 2019

Choose from the best trading brokers based on our hundreds of hours of detailed research to save you time. It is vital to use a regulated and trusted broker if you are to trade online with the best possible trading conditions. We have studied hundreds of online trading brokers suitable to all types of traders and compiled a guide of the best brokers based on our findings. We emphasise why these brokers are worth considering for online traders. To qualify, each broker must have strict regulation, tight spreads, low fees, fast execution, a wide range of trading instruments, multiple trading platforms and excellent customer service. You may wish to view our best forex brokers, best cfd brokers and best crypto brokers.

Top 3 Online Brokers of 2019

Broker
Rating
Regulated
Deposit
Founded
Leverage
1.
IronFX

ASIC, CySEC, FCA

Min $50 Deposit

2010

1:1000 (1:30 EU)

Review Open Account
Terms & conditions apply
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69.26% 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.
2.
Z.com Trade

FCA, SFC

Min $50 Deposit

2012

1:200 (1:30 EU)

Review Open Account
Terms & conditions apply
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 68% 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.
3.
HYCM

CIMA, CySEC, DFSA, FCA

Min $100 Deposit

1998

1:200 (1:30 EU)

Review Open Account
Terms & conditions apply
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.
Each of our top 3 brokers have successfully passed our trust score and have strict regulation from UK, US and Australian regulatory authorities. Our detailed analysis of each online broker shows that they offer low trading costs, multiple markets and excellent customer support. We consider them as well established, with many years of offering top class online trading services to clients across the globe.

1. Pepperstone

Pepperstone is our top trading broker overall. They are one of the most popular online brokers for many reasons.

The Pepperstone Razor account offers some of the best trading conditions available to retail traders with superior trade execution speeds, tight spreads and competitively low commissions.

Pepperstone has over 80 trading instruments available to over countries, including forex, CFDs and Cryptocurrencies via multiple trading platforms.

Pepperstone authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

Pepperstone have won multiple trading broker awards over the years, including top-notch customer support.

Pepperstone Pros/Cons
Pros Cons
Fast trade execution speeds No US clients
Tight spreads No fixed spread accounts
Low trading fees $200 minimum deposit
Multiple trading instruments Limited trading tools
Strict regulation Limited educational material

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.

Terms & conditions apply
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74.6% of Pepperstone Limited’s retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
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2. AvaTrade

AvaTrade is our runner up for best online broker 2019. Providing online trading to over 200,000 clients with a monthly trading volume of around £60 billion making them one of the largest online brokers.

AvaTrade has offices located in multiple countries with 24/5 support provided in 14 languages.

They offer award winning trading conditions for online traders with no commission charges and competitive spreads.

AvaTrade is authorised and regulated across 5 continents by 6 regulatory authorities.

AvaTrade offer one of the largest selections of trading instruments to clients with over 250+ instruments available to trade across different markets including forex, CFDs and Cryptocurrencies.

AvaTrade also offers clients a wide range of trading tools and educational materials to assist with trading.

Their huge sponsorship deals emphasis the power of the AvaTrade brand within the trading industry.

AvaTrade Pros/Cons
Pros Cons
250+ trading instruments No US clients
No commissions No variable spread accounts
Good trade execution speeds Min $100 deposit
Broad selection of trading tools
Strict regulation

AvaTrade is an award-winning trading broker with regulation in 6 jurisdictions offering 250+ trading instruments across multiple markets and trading platforms.

Terms & conditions apply
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 71% 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.
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3. XM Group

XM Group takes third place in our best trading brokers rankings. They are considered a trusted and reputable online broker serving over 196 countries with customer service available in 30 languages.

XM Group is based in the UK, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

XM Group provides over 2.5 million clients with good trading conditions including fast execution and low spreads due to their best execution policy and relationships with multiple liquidity providers. They have a no-requotes and no extra commissions policy.

XM Group provides a huge amount of trading instruments across multiple markets, including forex, CFDs and Cryptocurrencies.

The XM Zero account has the lowest spreads and charges a very competitive commission for each trade.

XM Group Pros/Cons
Pros Cons
No-requotes policy No US clients
No extra commissions No fixed spread accounts
Low spreads & fast execution Limited trading platforms
Min $5 deposit Limited trading tools
Strict regulation

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.

Terms & conditions apply
71.61% 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.
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How did Trading Brokers choose our best online brokers?

Now that you know our best trading brokers for 2019, we will look at why we chose these online brokers and what factors are worth considering when looking for a broker.

What makes a good online broker?

A good online broker will be regulated by the most respected regulatory authorities such as the FCA, ASIC & CySEC. They should have been operating for a number of years with a proven track record of delivering online trading services to clients across the globe.

They should offer a trading platform that you are familiar with. The MetaTrader 4/5 trading platform should be sufficient enough for most online traders. MetaTrader has a quick and easy learning curve so is suitable for all levels of trader.

You should make sure that the broker offers the markets and trading instruments that you wish to trade. If you plan to trade currency pairs (forex) now but could branch into CFDs in the future, then you should consider choosing a broker who offers access to both markets. This will make the transition into other markets more convenient.

Trading costs at the broker should be low, the lower the spreads and commission the lower your overall trading fees will be. The trading conditions should provide fast trade execution with minimal slippage. This helps to ensure that your trades get placed at the prices that you want them to.

The customer support provided by the broker should answer all client questions in a polite, prompt and sufficient manner. You can connect to the live chat on a brokers website to test how their customer service is. All traders should be treated equally, whilst you should be able to contact support via online chat, email and phone. Make sure that they offer a contact method that is suitable to you and available at least 24/5.

The key points to consider when choosing an online broker are:

  • Regulation
  • Trading platforms
  • Markets
  • Trading instruments
  • Trading fees (spreads / commission)
  • Customer service

What is online trading?

Online trading is the buying and selling of assets using an online brokers trading platform. Many markets can be traded online including forex, CFDs, indices, commodities, energies, precious metals, stocks, bonds, ETFs, Cryptocurrencies and more.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. All providers have a percentage of retail investor accounts that lose money when trading CFDs with their company. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

What is an online broker?

An online broker provides a trading account and platform for investors to buy and sell trading instruments across multiple markets. Traditionally, investors would have had to have telephoned a brokerage to place trades and manage transactions for them. Trading online has made it much quicker and easier for anyone to have access to trading through an online broker.

What types of online trading brokers are there?

The main types of trading brokers are market makers and ECN/STP brokers. Market makers usually do not charge a commission to trade with them but will add a mark-up to the spread to cover operational costs and take the opposite side of client trades. ECN/STP brokers will usually provide spreads direct from liquidity providers (LP’s) but charge a small commission for each trade to cover their costs. Overall, a non-market maker broker is usually preferable to most online traders as the costs can work out cheaper in the long run without a potential conflict of interest.

What markets can I trade online?

The main markets are forex (currencies) and CFDs. These are the two most commonly traded markets by retail traders through an online broker. This is partly due to the leverage offered on these products that can allow a trader to place trades greater than they would without leverage. It is highly recommended to understand trading, leverage and the risks involved before opening a real trading account. Whilst leverage can increase profits, it can also increase losses. It is considered good to practice trading on a demo account to begin with.

Looking for a forex broker?

If you are looking for a forex broker, see our best forex brokers.

Looking for a CFD broker?

If you are looking for a CFD broker, see our best CFD brokers.

Looking for a crypto broker?

If you are looking for a crypto broker, see our best crypto brokers.

How much money do I need to start investing?

You can start trading online with as little as $1 depending on the minimum deposit required by the broker. As trading is risky by nature, never trade with more than you can afford to lose.

Can you make money trading online?

It is possible to make profit from online trading although statistics provided by the many online brokers that we have researched does show that a percentage of traders lose money. Trading successfully requires patience, discipline, practice and a good trading broker.

How to open an online trading account?

Simply choose an online broker, complete the quick sign-up process and you will be able to start trading online.

Need help choosing a broker?

If you are still unsure which is the best broker for you then you can use our broker comparison tool.