FP Markets vs FXTM vs AvaTrade
It’s that time again.
This round, however, we pull back the curtain and compare three well-known, and highly reputable, Forex/CFD providers: FP Markets, FXTM and AvaTrade.
Our Expert Rating
Recommended  |  |  |
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|---|---|---|---|
Our Rating |  |  |  |
| FP Markets | FXTM | AvaTrade | |
Comparison
| Brokers under review | Recommended | | |
|---|---|---|---|
Our Rating | | | |
Established | 2005 | 2011 | 2006 |
| Account Application Time | 1 Business Day | 1 Business Day | 1 Business Day |
| Minimum Account Balance | 100 AUD | 200 USD | 100 USD |
| Trading Platforms | MT4, MT5, Iress | MT4 | MT4, MT5 |
| Account Types | Standard, Raw and Iress ViewPoint, Iress Investor and Iress Trader | Standard and ECN Accounts | Standard and Corporate |
| Range of Markets | 10,000+ (Additional Share CFDs via their Iress Platform) | 250 Trading Products | 250 Trading Products |
| Leverage | 1:500 | 1:300 | 1:400 |
| Trading Spreads/Fees | Low Spreads - Commission per side is 3.0 USD per one standard lot | Low Spreads - Commission per side is 4 USD per one standard lot | Incorporated into the spread + inactivity fee of 50 USD |
| Execution Speed | 36 Milliseconds | 79 Milliseconds | Unable to retrieve data |
| Regulation – Tier 1 Licences | ASIC; CySEC | Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) | CBI; B.V.I. FSC; ASIC; FSCA; FSA and FFAJ; FRSA |
| Market Research and Education | 9 | 7.5 | 7 |
| Customer Service | 9.5 | 8 | 7 |
Detailed Review
FP Markets
FP Markets, an Australian-based Forex/CFD provider, was founded in 2005. The company is a strong competitor in the retail foreign exchange industry, recently celebrating its 15th anniversary.
With headquarters located in the heart of Sydney, FP Markets has grown into a globally-recognised organisation, offering traders access to a broad range of CFD markets.
The company also boasts more than 40 international industry awards. Most recently, FP Markets were voted Best for Quality of Trade Execution 2019 in the Investment Trends 2019 Australia Leverage Trading Report, and also voted Best Global Forex Value Broker from Global Forex Awards, in 2019 and 2020.
Another positive feature worth highlighting is their innovative, user-friendly website, available in several languages. FP Markets have clearly listened to their users, offering vibrant page structure, along with easy navigation as well as mobile compatibility.
FXTM
Established in 2011, the FXTM Group, or sometimes referred to as ‘ForexTime’, is a popular Forex/CFD provider.
Headquartered in London, FXTM, according to their website, is trusted by more than 2 million individuals worldwide.
FXTM, since its inception, has received more than 25 awards, including Best Education Provider 2020 at the Forex Broker Awards and Best Trading Experience 2020 at the World Finance Forex Awards.
We appreciated FXTM’s easy-to-navigate website, available in English and Chinese. The drop-down menus provide swift access to each segment of the website, with a help tab located at the top of the website in the event you struggle to find what you’re searching for.
AvaTrade
Founded in 2006, AvaTrade is a Forex/CFD provider headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. AvaTrade is well known across the retail FX industry, boasting a world-wide client base. Their website states they complete more than 2 million trades each month, with trading volumes exceeding £60 billion.
Along its journey, AvaTrade have amassed a collection of awards, including Best Forex Broker 2019 – Daytrading.com, Most Innovative CFD Broker, UK 2019 – International Business Magazine, and was also voted the Number 1 Broker 2020 – The European.
Their home page is organised and offers clients straightforward navigation throughout. Overall, we feel their website offers a bright tone, available in a number of different languages.
FP Markets
With FP Markets, clients are able to trade on more than 10,000 products, including foreign exchange (Forex) as well as CFDs on indices, commodities, stocks.
FXTM
FXTM clients are able to trade with more than 250 products, composed of Forex (currencies), CFDs on commodities, spot metals, indices and individual shares.
According to their chat support, all their commodities CFDs trade with spot prices, but futures pricing is also taken into consideration.
Also, through our research, FXTM do not appear to offer.
AvaTrade
AvaTrade offers more than 250 trading products, consisting of options, bonds, currencies, commodities and indices.
Trading Fees and Spreads
FP Markets
FP Markets do not charge a commission on their Standard account, though a mark-up on the spread by 1 pip is applied.
For their Raw account, specifically Forex or metals, an additional commission is incurred. Commission per side is 3.0 USD per one standard lot, plus a variable spread cost.
Data acquired from their server shows the EUR/USD spread to be 0.0 pips on average 42.07% of the time from 01-09-2020 to 30-09-2020 (available for their RAW Spread trading accounts only).
According to FP Markets spread table, their raw account offers incredibly tight average spreads with EUR/USD and AUD/USD coming in as low as 0, along with EUR/GBP at 0.2 pips.
The above is associated costs with MetaTrader currencies, not Iress or share CFDs (which incur additional fees/adjustments). Visit https://www.fpmarkets.com/fees-charges/ for more information.
FP Markets do not apply any additional internal fees for deposits or withdrawals. FP Markets also does not charge an inactivity fee or account fees, except for IRESS Trader (though this depends on your monthly trade volume).
FXTM
Transaction costs are incorporated into the spread in MOST live trading accounts.
There is also the swap fee to take into consideration, applied to positions kept overnight – swap rates can be found on the MT4 platform by right-clicking on the instrument through Market Watch and choosing Specification.
You can find all minimum and typical spreads for each instrument and account type, as well as the swap rate, through the following link http://www.forextime.com/uk/forex-trading/contract-specifications. The typical spread for EUR/USD is 0.3 pips (available with FXTM Pro MT4).
You will also note there is a commission charge for their ECN MT4 account. According to their live support, commission on the ECN MT4 account type is approximately 2 USD for 1 lot for opening and 2 USD for closing (4 USD round turn). FXTM does not charge commissions on Standard, Share, cent, ECN Zero and ECN Pro MT4 accounts.
Other fees to consider are withdrawal, deposit and inactivity fees. Withdrawal fees varies based on the country of residence, the method you use, and the currency you make the withdrawal in. From EU, UK and other countries they charge 2 EUR/3 USD/2 GBP. There are no deposit fees. In regards to inactivity fees, their website states if the account has been inactive for 6 months, they’ll apply an inactivity fee of 5 EUR/USD/GBP.
AvaTrade
AvaTrade do not charge any commission fees. The provider, according to their website, is compensated through the spread.
The average spread cost of trading EUR/USD is 0.9 pips.
Other charges include overnight interest, maturity rollover, corporate actions and inactivity fees. For more
information, check out: https://www.avatrade.com/trading-info/financial-instruments-index.
AvaTrade doesn’t apply any fees for deposits or withdrawals. However, AvaTrade do have inactivity fees: 50 USD after three months of account inactivity, and following 12 consecutive months of inactivity, an administration fee of 100 USD is deducted.
In addition to the above, AvaTrade does not support a wide number of base currencies (5 in total, according to their live chat).
Trading Platforms – Account Types
FP Markets
FP Markets provides its traders with MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), as well as the Iress platform, a comprehensive active trader platform. This broker also provides its clients three additional trading platforms, Iress ViewPoint, Iress Investor and Iress Trader. For more information on Iress see https://www.fpmarkets.com/uk/iress/.
FP Markets have two account types for both MT4 and MT5: Standard and Raw.
All aforementioned platforms offer mobile trading solutions, both for iOS and Android.
FP Markets offer demo accounts for all platforms, but if left inactive for 30 days the accounts will be archived.
FXTM
The MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform is available with FXTM. As per their website, they’re planning to launch MT5 in the near future.
This provider also offers the FXTM Trader App. Available on App Store and Google play, this is FXTM’s mobile trading application. For more details check out: https://www.forextime.com/uk/trading-tools/mobile-app.
Standard and ECN accounts are available with FXTM, including Standard, Stock CFDs, Cent and ECN, ECN Zero & FXTM Pro. This webpage displays all the account types available: https://www.forextime.com/uk/trading- accounts/trading-account-comparison.
Demo accounts are available on all account types except the stock CFD account. Therefore, they offer Standard, Cent, ECN and ECN Zero accounts in demo formats. Note if the demo account is not traded at least once within 60 days, it is disabled. Though, FXTM do state you’re able to open new demo accounts from MYFXTM.
AvaTrade
AvaTrade offers the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platforms, together with AvaOptions (AvaOptions is AvaTrade’s proprietary platform to trade options). ZuluTrade and DupliTrade are their mobile social and copy trading platforms. They also cater for Spread Betters via MT4, for clients in the UK and Ireland.
AvaTrade also provide a propriety mobile trading app: AvaTradeGO with MT4.
Mac trading is also available – for more information see https://www.avatrade.co.uk/trading-platforms/mac- trading.
Demo accounts are accessible for all platforms, yet expire after 21 days. This can be extended via their customer support team if required.
Leverage
FP MARKETS
Through FP Markets, clients can access leverage up to 1:500 on Forex pairs and precious metals. This broker provides a reasonably detailed webpage here: https://www.fpmarkets.com/uk/leverage/, showing you their leverage rates for specific products, how leverage works and the maximum equity balance.
FXTM
The maximum leverage FXTM offer is up to 1:30 for retail clients. This obviously depends on the instruments traded. For details on margin and leverage requirements as per the specific instrument, check out the following page: https://www.forextime.com/uk/trading-accounts/leverage-margin-requirements.
If you’re what they term an experienced trader, you could gain access up to 1:300 of leverage. Check out the following page for more details on requirements https://www.forextime.com/uk/trading-accounts/trade-as- professional-client.
AvaTrade
AvaTrade offers leverage up to 1:30 on MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 for FX pairs.
For more information regarding AvaTrade’s leverage, check out: https://www.avatrade.co.uk/education/trading-
for-beginners/guide-to-leverage.
Execution Speed
FP MARKETS
The average order execution time between the trade being received, processed and confirmed is 36 milliseconds. FP Markets was rated by Investment Trends as the Best for Quality of Trade Execution 2019.
FXTM
According to their live chat – the average execution speed in August for ECN zero was around 0.092 milliseconds and for their ECN MT4 account 0.079 milliseconds, whereas the standard account offered 0.129 milliseconds.
AvaTrade
We were unfortunately unable to find any information on average execution speed for this provider. Live support also could not provide this information.
Regulations and Licences
FP Markets
FP Markets is regulated by the following bodies:
FXTM
FXTM, according to their website, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
AvaTrade
AvaTrade boasts high regulation across 6 jurisdictions, licensed as a regulated provider in the EU, Japan,
Australia, South Africa, UAE and the British Virgin Islands.
For more information on AvaTrade’s regulatory bodies, see the following link: https://www.avatrade.com/about- avatrade/why-avatrade/regulation.
(Australia)
Contact – Customer Service
FP Markets
FXTM
AvaTrade
Market Research – Educational Content
FP Markets
A dedicated Trader’s Hub is available with FP Markets. In-depth daily technical and fundamental analysis can be accessed for free via separate pages, covered by industry experts. This provider also offers an in-depth Weekly Technical Market Insight, including comprehensive analysis of the US dollar index.
What’s also particularly impressive is their Black and White Technical report which looks at detailed pattern structure in various markets – this is a weekly report. Also weekly, FP Markets provides Currency Point, a video- based review of the week, presented by industry expert Evan Lucas.
As for educational material, FP Markets provide in-depth eBooks, video tutorials, a trading glossary and a newsletter sign-up. They also have a section labelled Trading Knowledge , which delivers a number of fresh informative articles each month, from things like how to use MT4, how to use technical analysis tools, and, over the past couple of months, they’ve also begun releasing several pieces on the upcoming US election, alongside webinars held by Evan Lucas.
FXTM
According to their website, FXTM analyse global markets, highlighting potential market opportunities using fundamental and technical analysis.
The Forex News Timeline is a pretty cool feature, providing up-to-date news commentary for clients.
Daily Market Analysis offers a combination of technical and fundamental analysis. Although the fundamental
analysis was particularly detailed, we felt a little more technical analysis could be added here.
Weekly Market Analysis Videos are also available. FXTM’s Senior Research Analyst, Lukman Otunuga, rounds up all the key market events for the week ahead and pinpoints what traders might be looking out for. An economic calendar is also available.
FXTM’s education section is quite impressive, divided by a number of subcategories which include detailed eBooks, FX seminars, workshops and webinars. At the time of writing, however, their seminars are on hold at the moment, presumably due to coronavirus.
AvaTrade
To access any form of trading research, you’ll have to click through their Education tab. It is clear AvaTrade have invested in their research and education department.
Trading for beginners is composed of a number of clear articles, videos and eBooks explaining the market and professional trading techniques.
From our research, there does not appear to be any free technical or fundamental analysis on the market. Instead, they provide Sharp Trader, a premium educational website exclusively for AvaTrade clients. Therefore, presumably, to gain access to this service it is necessary to sign up to a live account.
Sharp Trader offers video tuition for all trading levels, along with daily technical and fundamental analysis by AvaTrade’s industry experts. Additionally, it comes with an economic calendar and trading calculators.
Account Application
FP Markets
It can take up to 1 business day for your account to be approved. Demo account access is available immediately.
FP Markets need proof of ID and proof of residence. As ID they accept a passport, National ID card or driving
license. As proof of residence they accept a utility bill or a bank statement issued in the past 6 months.
For corporate accounts, FP Markets require proof of identity and proof of residence for all directors and beneficial owners. They also require the certificate of incorporation and memorandum of articles of association. If the beneficial owner is another entity, they will also require additional documentation. You can reach out to their onboarding team (onboarding@fpmarkets.com) for more information.
The minimum deposit for an MT4/5 account is 100 AUD, or currency equivalent. The minimum deposit for the Iress platform is 1,000 AUD, or currency equivalent.
Restricted countries, according to FP Markets, are the US, Japan and New Zealand, or residents from any other country or jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to those local laws or regulations.
FXTM
Once documents are uploaded, FXTM stated (live chat) that it can take up to 20 minutes to 24 hours to verify account opening.
For retail clients, clear colour copies (mobile photo or a scan) of the following documents are needed:
1. Proof of identity – passport, national identity card or driving license.
2. Proof of address – bank/card statement or utility bill, issued no longer than 3 months ago.
Examples of other documents which can be provided are:
1. Water/gas/electric/internet/telephone bill. Note they do not accept mobile telephone bills.
2. Residency certificate.
FXTM do offer corporate accounts. Live chat said in order to obtain details, clients are requested to send an
email to documents@forextime.co.uk.
With this provider, the minimum deposit varies depending on which account is selected. For example, their ECN accounts differ between an eye-popping 25,000 USD to 200 USD. Standard accounts, on the other hand, range between 10 USD and 100 USD.
AvaTrade
According to their live chat, it can take up to 24 hours to open an account.
Live chat stated ID and a utility bill is required.
When pressed further live chat specified:
You can upload your national ID card, driving licence or passport as proof of ID. For proof of address, a utility bill gas/water/electricity/mobile, landline phone bill or a bank statement is required.
For corporate accounts, a number of documents are needed, including Certificate of Incorporation, Corporate Board Resolution and a copy of the company director’s government-issued ID card as well as a copy of a recent utility bill (not older than 3 months). For more information, see: https://support.avatrade.com/hc/en- us/articles/360001783611-What-documents-are-required-to-open-a-Corporate-Account-.
The minimum deposit amount is 100 USD.
According to their live chat, USA, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.
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