How to choose the best forex trading provider in Australia
Forex trading providers have different offerings. Discover how to choose the best forex provider for your trading needs with Australia's No.1 choice for CFD trading.1
Start trading today. For account opening enquiries call 1800 601 799 between 9am and 6pm (AEDT) weekdays, or email newaccounts.au@ig.com.
Contact us: 1800 601 799
Start trading today. For account opening enquiries call 1800 601 799 between 9am and 6pm (AEDT) weekdays, or email newaccounts.au@ig.com.
Contact us: 1800 601 799
What is a forex trading provider?
A forex trading provider is an individual or an institution who facilitates the buying and selling of foreign currency for you as a trader. We’re an example of a forex trading provider, as our platform acts as the ‘middleman’ that enables you to speculate on the value of a forex pair without actually having to buy any physical currencies.
What is forex trading?
Forex trading is the practice of speculating on the price of a currency as measured against the price of another currency (for example, how strong the British pound is compared to the Aussie dollar). Because you’re not actually taking ownership of any notes or coins outright, but instead attempting to predict their value, you as the trader need a platform to speculate on. This platform is made available by your trading provider.
Find out more about trading forex
How does a forex trading account work in Australia?
Forex trading accounts in Australia work in slightly different ways, so how it’ll work will be determined by which provider you choose. We try to make our forex accounts simple to use.
The following is a summary of how a forex trading account will work:
- A forex trading account is where you’ll speculate on currencies’ values in the market. With us, you can open a CFD trading account to trade on forex, which we’ll explain a bit further on
- Because the forex market never sleeps, a good forex trading provider will give you 24/5 access to foreign exchange trading. With us, you can trade forex from 7pm Saturday to 9am the next Saturday (AEDT).2 These long trading hours are made possible because forex transactions are completed over the counter (OTC), rather than through a central exchange
- You’ll then need to select a currency pair to trade or invest in. With us, you can trade over 80 currency pairs, including major pairs like GBP/USD and EUR/USD, but also more minor and exotic pairs like USD/ZAR or AUD/CNH
- Forex is traded in lots. These are standardised ‘batch sizes’ of currency pairs you can speculate with. For example, a standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency – but you get smaller denominations as well. So, before you get started, you’ll need to determine the lot size and amount you’re comfortable with spending
- Remember, it’s not just about lots – both your position size, as well as the price of the instrument, need to be factored into the cost. Plus, other fees and charges may apply
- The way a forex trading account works is that you’re in charge, not a fund manager. So, you’ll need to watch and study the market movements of the currencies you’re trading on and keep close watch of any open positions, setting alerts so as to not miss any significant moves
- For the same reason, you’ll also want a good risk management strategy in place to maximise your chance of profits and minimise your chances of a loss
Want to try trading with us? We’re Australia's No.1 choice for CFD trading1 and have over 320,000 clients worldwide.
How to choose a forex trading provider
The forex market is the biggest, most liquid (and often the most volatile) market in the world – so you really want a forex trading provider that you can rely on. Here are some key factors to consider when choosing a foreign exchange trading provider:
Spread and commission rate
The margin rate you’ll pay to open a position isn’t the only amount you’ll pay. When trading forex, you don’t pay any commission to us – but you will pay for something known as ‘the spread.’
The spread is the difference between the buy and sell prices when you open a forex trade. In most cases, we charge our own spread on top of the market spread, as our fee for the trade.
The spread amounts are largely determined by the market’s economic conditions. The more volatile a market is, the wider the spread will become in order to manage the volatility. We can usually offer our minimum spread, but when market prices go wider, our spread will increase.
These are the minimum spread amounts on some of the most popular FX pairs:
Deposits and withdrawals
With many forex providers, there’ll be additional fees involved in trading. It’s important to know what these are before you choose to do business with them.
Hidden charges can rear their heads particularly when it’s time to:
- Make your first initial deposit to begin forex trading
- Make deposits into your account thereafter
- Withdraw your profits as funds
With us, there’s no minimum deposit amount you’re required to make for bank transfers – although you can also deposit via credit card at a fee or for free using a debit card. When setting up your forex trading account, you also don’t need to fund your account to make it ‘valid’, as with some providers.
Learn more about depositing with us
We also try to make deposits and withdrawals seamless. You can make deposits with a bank card or with a bank transfer. Successful card payments are deposited immediately and bank transfers can take up to three working days, depending on the bank. In the meantime, you can upload a proof of payment to trade with the funds right away.
When withdrawing funds via bank transfer, it will generally reach you on the same day.
For forex traders wanting to withdraw in a currency other than the Australian dollar, withdrawals will be subject to a conversion charge of 0.7% at the prevailing spot rate. These requests are processed manually and may take longer to reflect in your account.
Find out more about withdrawing your money
Trading platforms
All forex providers use some sort of platform – the tool you’ll use to place your actual forex trade. But not all platforms are created equal, and not all trading providers have the same variety of platforms to choose from.
We’re proud to offer an award-winning platform and app to trade on.3
In terms of the variety of platforms you can trade on with us, there are a few to choose from. Apart from our fully mobile-friendly platform and app, clients in Australia can trade on ProRealTime and our DMA (direct market access) platform L2 Dealer. We also offer MetaTrader 4 (MT4) – a well-known third-party platform used worldwide.
Trading hours
The world of forex never sleeps. It’s the biggest and most liquid market on the planet, with individuals, companies and banks carrying out trillions of dollars’ worth of forex transactions every single day.
The major forex centres are London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney, but within those locales thousands of different currencies change hands, from countries with time zones completely different to each other. All this makes forex an international, 24-hour market.
For this reason, it’s vital to choose a forex provider that can offer you as many trading hours as possible. You might be based in Australia, but if you want to trade on the USD/AUD currency pair, for instance, you’ll know that New York trading hours start at 7am NY time, while Australia’s trading day only begins at 9pm at night.
With us, you can trade forex from 5pm Saturday to 7am the next Saturday (AEST).2 Our weekend forex trading hours run from 7pm Saturday to 7.40am Monday. We’re also the only provider in Australia to offer weekend trading on major currency pairs like GBP/USD, EUR/USD and USD/JPY.
Explore our out-of-hours offering
Amount of forex markets available
Of course, as a forex trader, you don’t only want the maximum number of hours available – you’ll also want the most currency pairs, to find opportunities that fit best with your trading style and strategy. That’s because each currency pair has its own unique advantages and disadvantages, levels of volatility and opportunities.
We have more than 80 of the world’s most popular currency pairs to trade, including:
- Major pairs like GBP/USD, EUR/USD, GBP/EUR and USD/JPY
- Minor pairs like CAD/CHF, USD/ZAR and SGB/JPY
- Emerging currency pairs like USD/CNH, and AUD/CNH
- Exotic pairs like EUR/CZK, TRY/JPY, USD/MXN
Educational tools available
Finding an online trading provider that offers plenty of training materials and learning resources on forex is also beneficial. Simply put, the more you know about FX trading, the more likely you are to succeed in your trading journey and maximise your chances of making profits while minimising your chances of suffering losses.
You can improve your trading knowledge and skills with IG Academy. This tool offers courses for you to learn at your own pace. You can then put your new skills to the test by opening a demo trading account, $20,000 in virtual funds to practice with before forex trading live. Apart from this, we also have both strategy tips and news and analysis articles by news service Reuters and our own in-house analysts to help you understand what’s happening in the forex market right now.
Customer service
Of course, there are times you’ll need support, no matter how good your strategy is. Not only do you want to choose an online trading provider that’s got a good platform, you also want them to help you when you have questions.
This is especially crucial for forex traders in Australia, where trading can be done at irregular hours, but a lot of ‘AU platforms’ are based in other countries. If that’s the case, what are their customer support hours? Will they be able to field your queries when you need them? Always consider lines of communication and immediate availability when choosing your trading provider.
We’re based in Australia, plus our customer support is available by phone, email, WhatsApp or live chat. We're around 24 hours a day, except from 9am to 7pm Saturdays (AEDT).
This is especially designed to be helpful to forex traders – a lot of whom trade outside of regular office hours and make use of X (formerly Twitter) for FX trading tips.
If you’re a beginner forex trader who’s yet to start trading with us, you can also make use of our client services team for a one-on-one walk through of our platform while setting up your account.
Australian forex trading provider comparison
To see how we stack up to the competition, see some of the most prominent forex trading providers in Australia compared, including us – Australia's No.1 choice for CFD trading.1
| Provider | IG | eToro | Trading 212 | CMC Markets | Plus500 |
| Accounts | CFD trading and share trading accounts available | One account for CFD trading and share trading | CFD trading, share trading | CFD trading and share trading | CFD trading only |
| Currencies pairs | More than 80 currency pairs worldwide, including major, minor, exotic and emerging market pairs | More than 45 currency pairs | More than 80 currency pairs | More than 80 currency pairs | More than 80 currency pairs |
| Forex markets | We have over 17,000 markets on offer, including forex | Over 2,000 markets, including forex markets | Over 10,000 markets, including forex markets | Over 11,000 markets, including forex markets | Over 2,000 markets, including forex markets |
| Trading hours | 24/5 trading on all forex pairs, with weekend and out of hours trading for the world’s most major pairs | No 24/7 trading or after hours trading on shares | No 24/7 trading on forex | 24/5 trading for forex, Mondays to Fridays | 24/5 trading for forex |
| Trading platforms | You can trade on the web, our app, L2 Dealer, MT4 and ProRealTime | Web and app platforms only | Web and app platforms only | Web, app and MT4 platforms available | Web and app platforms only |
| Educational tools | Upskill yourself with IG Academy. Plus, get news and strategy tips from Reuters and our in-house analysts and trading signals | Academy and news from in-house analysts | Community forum and help centre | News from in-house analysts | News from in-house analysts |
| Customer service | 24/5 phone support, plus 24/7 email and WhatsApp support | No phone support. Live chat and email support from Monday to Friday | No phone support. Live chat and email support 24/7 | Phone and email support from Monday to Friday | No phone support. Live chat, WhatsApp and email support 24/7 |
What’s the best forex trading provider for you?
The best forex provider for you will depend on your trading style and the goals you hope to achieve. Whatever those may be, the right forex trading provider for you will have:
- The market hours that you’ll most want to trade, depending on your chosen currency pair – we have 24/5 trading, plus weekend hours
- A platform that works for your needs – we offer our classic platform, mobile app, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer and MT4
- A transparent fee structure – you can see all our charges here
Ultimately, the only way to find out which forex trading provider is right for you is to try platforms out and see what works for your specific FX strategy.
How to start forex trading with us
Ready to give us a try? Follow these three steps :
- Fill in a form. Here, we’ll ask about your trading knowledge to ensure you get the best experience
- Get verification – this is usually instant
- Fund your account and start trading
FAQs
Do I need a provider for forex trading?
Yes, you do. When you trade forex, it’s always done on a platform that enables you to speculate on the prices of currency pairs. The owner of this platform (who also facilitates your transactions) is the forex trading provider.
When is a bad time to trade forex?
This depends on your forex trading provider – and the kind of times they offer. The forex market itself is open 24/7. We offer forex trading 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Plus, you’ll also get weekend hours on the most popular major pairs.
It’s also important to consider that there are times of the day during which the market may be less liquid, with wider spreads.
Which day is the best day to trade forex?
Again, this will vary vastly depending on the currency pair you choose to trade on. The ‘Monday effect’ from shares trading can apply to forex, but it all depends on the markets’ hours you’re trading.
Is it good to trade forex at night?
This depends on which currency pair you’re trading, and what time of the day their respective markets are open. If you're trading USD/JPY, for example, trading forex during the day (Australian time) will be very different to trading AUD/NZD at the same time.
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1 Number 1 in Australia by primary relationships, CFDs & FX, Investment Trends November 2023 Leveraged Trading Report.
2 Our trading hours are based on UK hours, and are converted to AU time zones. This means that the times listed are affected by both UK and AU clock changes in the year, and will be adjusted by +/- 1 hour accordingly.
3 Best Finance App, Best Multi-Platform Provider and Best Platform for the Active Trader as awarded at the ADVFN International Financial Awards 2024.
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