Saying that FP Markets is one of the best Australian brokers wouldn’t be an exaggeration. They have been operating for nearly 17 years now, providing clients with high-quality trading services, for which they have gained industry recognition and numerous awards. Over the years, they have won more than 40 industry awards, such as ‘Best Trade Execution’, ‘Best Customer Service’ and ‘Best Value for Money’. Furthermore, the renowned ‘Investment Trends CFD Report’ has awarded FP Markets with the ‘Most Satisfied Traders’ in the industry for 5 years running.

Most recently, FP Markets was recognized as the ‘Best FX Broker Australia’ 2021 for a second consecutive year by FxScouts. For the third consecutive year, FP Markets has been voted the “Best Global Value Forex Broker” at the Global Forex Awards 2021.

The broker has a range of 10,000+ tradable instruments offering traders access to CFDs across Forex, Indices, Commodities, Stocks, and Cryptocurrencies. If you are into stocks trading, you will be delighted to know that FP markets offer more than 8000 shares, and you may find detailed information about all of them in their Share CFD Directory launched in October last year.

In this thorough review of FP Markets, we will discuss in detail all parts of the broker’s offer: trading accounts, and platforms; minimum deposit required, maximum leverage provided, spreads and commission fees, as well as other trading costs; assets available for trade on the different platforms; deposit and withdrawal methods, as well as the fees relating to them. We will also explain all the regulatory aspects of forex trading and what are the benefits of dealing with a broker licensed in Australia and Europe like FP Markets. Read all the details below.

Trading Accounts & Assets

*Leverage of 1:500 is only available to clients of the broker’s offshore entity.

The account types at FP MARKETS are basically in two categories, based on the trading platforms available: MetaQuotes’ MT4 and MT5 or the broker’s proprietary software Iress.

Account types

Clients of FP Markets who prefer trading on MetaQuotes’ well-established platforms have a choice of two account types: Standard commission-free one, and Raw account which provides tighter spreads, but also involves a commission. Both account types offer generous leverage of up to 1:500 and are accessible with an initial deposit of just AUD 100. A major difference between these two accounts is that the Raw one offers ECN pricing.

And those who would rather trade in stocks with more sophisticated research tools on the Iress platform, have a choice of three account types – Standard, Platinum, and Premier. The use of this platform is generally costlier – the initial investment required is significantly higher, and besides, some extra fees apply. For example, those who wish to use Iress Trader/ViewPoint, will be charged $55 per month. The latter fee will be waived if traders generate $150 in commission per month.

And traders who cannot pay or receive swaps or rollover interest on overnight positions due to religious reasons can register an Islamic account with FP Markets. They won’t pay swaps or rollover, but some admin fees apply, whose amount varies, depending on the instrument traded (from $1 to $33). That said, the broker doesn’t charge admin fees for the first five nights of trading.

Furthermore, the broker also provides MAM/PAMM services. For those of you who aren’t acquainted with this type of service, these modules allow fund managers to manage multiple accounts from a single account without having to create an investment fund. In other words, those who don’t have the skills or the time to trade themselves can use the services of established traders that provide managed account services against a certain fee.

And FP Markets promises investors using its MAM/PAMM solutions customizable trading conditions, automatic calculations, and real-time performance and commissions reports.

Account opening

Otherwise, opening an account with the broker is relatively easy and straight-forward – you need to register, verify your account by providing proof of identity (a valid passport, driving license, or national ID card) and a proof of residence (a utility bill or bank statement showing your full name and address, and that is dated within the last six months). These documents are required because of the Know your Client’ (KYC) procedures that the broker must adhere to, in accordance with international Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations.

Then, all you need to do is deposit some money, meet the broker’s minimum requirements (discussed below), and start trading. If you are new to trading and feel insecure, or just wish to test the broker’s services for free first, you can always open a demo account first.

Tradeable assets

Now, let’s turn our attention to FP Markets’ product portfolio –  the broker provides access to over 13 000 trading instruments. These include more than 70 currency pairs, CFDs on commodities, indices, stocks, precious metals, and even cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum. And on the Iress platform clients of FP Markets can trade in thousands of share CFDs across 9 international exchanges.

And speaking of execution, we should also mention that FP Markets is a NDD broker, which means that there shouldn’t be any conflict of interest between the company and its clients (as is the case with Dealing Desk brokers). Also, the execution speed of NDD brokers is generally considered higher, and FP Markets boasts an average order execution time of 40 milliseconds between the trade being received, processed, and confirmed as executed.

The Company. Security of Funds

FP MARKETS (FPM) is a trusted global CFD and forex provider that was established in 2005. The group of companies within the FP Markets brand include First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd. – a company based in Sydney, that is licensed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), First Prudential Markets Ltd., which is regulated in Cyprus and the EU, as well as an offshore entity registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). And FP Markets (Pty) Ltd is a FSP authorised and regulated by the FSCA in South Africa (FSP Number 50926).

ASIC requires financial services providers under its gaze to meet certain minimum capital requirements (AUD 1 000 000) to meet client payout obligations, adhere to strict rules, and employ sound internal procedures for client account segregation, risk management, financial reporting, staff hiring, and external audit schedules. In April 2021, ASIC introduced a series of new requirements for forex brokers operating in the country, which basically made the Australian regulatory framework similar to those in Europe.

Apart from the minimum capital requirement of €730,000, which should be met on an ongoing basis, all brokers licensed in an EU Member State are expected to report all transactions to the commission, to keep all clients’ funds in segregated accounts, as well as to meet all standards introduced on an EU level. The latter include the provision of negative balance protection, prohibition of trading incentives such as bonuses, leverage cap of up to 1:30, reporting the number of clients with losing trades, and participation in a compensation mechanism. In Cyprus for example, compensations to clients of licensed brokers are paid up by the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF). The latter is the compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorized financial services firms, which may cover up to a maximum of €20,000 per person.

That said, Australian forex regulation still lacks a compensation mechanism. By comparison, brokers operating in the EU and the UK are covered by compensation funds or schemes, which protects consumers up to EUR 20 000 or GBP 85 000 per person, respectively, in case a licensed entity goes bankrupt.

Nevertheless, FP Markets says its client funds are held in segregated accounts with a AAA rated Australian bank, and are handled according to the Australian Client Money Rules under the Corporations Act. To ensure compliance with all the regulatory requirements and operational processes, the broker has in place an external independent auditor (BDO Australia).

Trading Conditions

Minimum Initial Deposit
Traders are required to deposit $100 in order to open a MT4/MT5 account with FP MARKETS, which is average in the forex industry. And those who would rather use the broker’s Iress platform should invest at least $1000.

Average Spreads & Commissions
FP MARKETS offers variable spreads, the typical ones on its commission-free account amounting to 1.45, and the ones on the ECN Raw accounts averaging to 0.45 pips on EUR/USD. Considering that commission of $3 per standard lot per side applies on the Raw account, trading costs of such account holders amount to a little over 1 pip, which is quite lucrative for traders.

For further information, you may look up real-time spreads of 15 leading brokers here.

Maximum Leverage FP MARKETS offers leverage ratios of up to 1:500, but in order to be able to use such, you need to sacrifice other things and contract the broker’s offshore entity. And honestly, levels that high are overly risky for traders, especially inexperienced ones.

The thing is, using higher leverage means greater exposure to risk, and you may lose all funds in your account in a matter of minutes if the market moves against you. That is why the leverage available to retail clients is restricted in many jurisdictions, including in the US, the European Union, Japan, Canada, Turkey, and Australia.

If you still find it hard to understand the nature of leverage (or trading on margin), here is an example:  If a broker offers 1:500 leverage, this means that for every $1 of their capital, you receive $500 to trade with. So, if you deposit $1 000 for example, you will be able to trade volumes at a value of $500 000, and multiply your profits by 500.

Needless to say, clients of the Australian or European entity of FP Markets will only be able to use leverage of up to 1:30, because of the restrictions that apply in those jurisdictions. That said, many brokers try to circumvent the leverage restrictions in Europe by either classifying clients as professionals or transferring them to their overseas entity.

Trading Platforms

FP MARKETS offers its customers several trading platforms: MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5, cTrader and its in-house Iress, specialized in CFDs trading.

The MT4, including extra tools
The MT4 is the most widely used forex platform, designed to facilitate a smooth and efficient trading experience. With FP Markets is available to FPM’s clients in all forms and shapes – desktop downloadable versions, web versions for various browsers, and mobile apps.

The reason for MT4’s extraordinary popularity is perhaps its reliability, ease of use, and rich functionality. This trading software basically provides all the tools and resources a trader needs: a number of technical indicators, an advanced charting package, an extensive back-testing environment, and a wide range of Expert Advisers (EAs). By using EAs traders may sit back, while the software does all the work, as Expert Advisers allow full automatization of trades.

Another notable feature of the MT4 is that the platform allows customization. So, those who are handy with code can create their own EAs and indicators. And those who don’t have the time and the skills to configure can select ready-made Expert Advisors and market indicators from the huge library for free.

Those trading on the MT4 will also be glad to know that FP markets has some extra Trader Toolbox for this platform – a suite of twelve online trading tools which will enhance your trading. More specifically, these include applications such as Trader Toolbox Connect, which provides news feed and economic calendars, and Correlation Trader which makes correlations between markets and highlights the areas of low or high correlation.

Other key tools from MT4 Trader Toolbox include Alarm Manager, Stealth Orders, Excel RTD, Session Map, Sentiment Trader, Tick Chart, and more.

The MT5, VPS services

As MT4 will soon be phased out, the broker launched trading in the latest version of MetaQuotes software – MetaTrader 5 (MT5). It has most of the great features of MT4, as well as some new ones. Most importantly, the MT5 offers traders the opportunity to trade an extended number of instruments from a variety of asset classes, including exchange-traded stocks. The MT5 can also be accessed via your browser, whichever it is, and can be downloaded and installed on your PC or mobile, regardless of the OS.

In recent years, MetaQuotes has made many significant upgrades to the MT5, such as adding a hedging option, tool for analyzing exchange markets, news management improvement, market data subscriptions, new chart settings and even negative prices.

If you are into automated trading and running EAs all the time, it is vital that your platform is Internet-connected 24 hours a day. The best solution in this case is VPS and FP Markets has partnered with TradersColo and BeeksFX VPS, to provide a customized low latency solution for their clients using the MT4/MT5. The VPS seamlessly connects traders to the Equinix NY4 grid using cutting-edge technology and providing excellent execution.

And the good news is that you can even use VPS with FP Markets free of charge – either if you meet certain trading volume (over 10 lots on a standard trading account, or 20 lots on our Raw account), or if you make a minimum deposit of 1000 USD or equivalent.

Iress platforms
FP Markets’ proprietary platform Iress is web-based and basically intended for trading in equities. It provides industry-leading execution, a wide range of order types, stop-loss, live news feeds, international data, real-time price quotes, complete market depth, and charting facilities.

Speaking of charting, we have to point out that Iress platform is equipped with 59 technical analysis indicators, more than 50 drawing tools, multiple timeframes, historical market data, and more. Also, you can customize and save chart templates.

Iress is a web-based platform built on HTML5. The entire Iress Suite comprises Iress ViewPoint, web-based Iress Trader, Iress Investor, and Iress Mobile.

When you log in to the Iress platform from the navigation menu, you can choose between Iress Trader or Iress ViewPoint. There is actually automatic data sync between the two. The Iress ViewPoint is said to provide advanced trading tools and better compatibility with a number of internet browsers.

As its name suggests, Iress Investor is intended for investors, who don’t wish to trade themselves. It’s designed as multi-product portfolio management alerts, and features alerts, advanced charting, market data across multiple product types and exchanges, and a full range of order options.

The Iress investor platform is available for free, only if you wish live price streaming, you have to pay $22 per month. The Viewpoint version on the other hand has a monthly fee of $55 (+$22 for the live streaming). However, high volume traders who generate more than $150 in commission in any calendar month, don’t have to pay these monthly fees.

And as regards the financial instruments available on Iress, these include over 13 000 stocks on global exchanges, futures CFDs, indices, commodities, metals, cryptocurrencies, and forex.

Extra services and tools

Furthermore, clients of FP Markets can automate their trades with MyFXbook’s AutoTrade – a state-of-the-art automated social trade copying service, which provides users with the opportunity to copy a wide selection of systems directly into their MT4 trading account.

Besides, clients of FP Markets may also use the powerful Autochartist technical analysis tool, which scans the market to provide detailed breakdowns across a wide range of forex and CFD instruments. The FP Markets Autochartist is customizable, so you can better control the trading activity, and can be used with the MT4 platform through a specially designed plug-in.

In March last year, the broker launched its Social Trading app. The new service is especially suitable for beginner traders since it allows them to become Copiers – to follow and copy the trades of successful traders automatically, thus removing some of the complexities of trading forex and CFDs. And those who are experienced and self-confident traders may offer trading strategies as Providers.

Methods of Payment

FP MARKETS offers its clients a variety of deposit/withdrawal methods: via credit/debit card, bank wire, Neteller, Skrill, Paytrust88, FasaPay, SticPay, DragonPay, Perfect Money, Volt, PayLivre, FairPay, Finrax, and LetKnowPay.

Depending on the depositing method, clients may use the following currencies: AUD, USD, SGD, CHF, GBP, CAD, HKD, JPY, EUR, and NZD. Also, note that deposits are either instant or processed within one business day.

Most of the deposit methods are free of charge, but not all. Anyway, there’s detailed information on payment fees, so check it out on the broker’s website.

And the good news is that withdrawals at FP Markets are processed within one business day, once all required documents are received by the broker.

Education and Customer support

The broker also provides rich education materials on its website, which always leaves a good impression. They have a trading glossary, a number of video tutorials and e-books on online trading, and also maintain a trading information resource called Traders Hub which could be useful to both newbies and regular traders. The Traders Hub was launched in 2020 and delivers the latest trading and analysis data. There, you may find daily technical and fundamental analysis, weekly trading analysis, as well as company news.

And if you have any questions, you can get in touch with FP Markets‘ customer support via phone, chat, and e-mail. They usually provide quick and relevant answers to traders’ questions and the number of supported languages is quite amazing: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Indonesian, Italian, Malaysian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese.

Furthermore, FP Markets uses TruRating – an innovative feedback solution that prompts clients to answer (anonymously) certain questions regarding the broker’s services. Thus, based on feedback from clients, the broker strives to improve its offerings.

Conclusion

FP MARKETS is a reliable brokerage operating in Australia and Europe, which is licensed by two of the most well-established financial regulators – the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). They have over 15 years of experience on the financial markets and have won a number of industry awards, so they have earned themselves a solid reputation.

Furthermore, FP Markets offers competitive conditions for trading in a wide range of assets, and most notably a huge selection of stocks on its proprietary Iress platform. Other than that, the broker also supports the industry-leading MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5, and a bunch of account types to choose from.

The broker’s intention has always been to deliver the ultimate trading experience for traders by providing the best trading conditions, technology, pricing, product range, in combination with the reliability sound financial regulation brings along.

To sum things up, here are the advantages and drawbacks with regards to FP MARKETS: