Best Forex Brokers

Below are the online forex brokers that are highly recommended. Why do we highly recommend these forex brokers? Well first of all, we don't. The retail forex traders of the world do. Our opinion plays no role in deciding which brokers make this list. See our notes below the list for details on how this list was compiled.

There are 10 online forex brokers on this list and we have over 400 brokers identified on this website. This is therefore, in the collective opinion of the world's retail forex traders, the cream of the crop, the top 2.5%. Want more choices? Check out our Recommended Forex Brokers List, our Top Rated Online Forex Brokers List, which currently includes almost 100 online forex brokers along with their independent trader ratings, our Most Popular Online Forex Brokers List or for the ultimate in choice, our Alphabetical List of Brokers which contains more than 400 forex brokers with links to their sites.

Hot Forex (8.49)

Headquarters: Port Louis, Mauritius	Founded: 2007
Business Model: ECN / STP	Forex Online Since: 2010
Regulated by: FSC	Platform: Metatrader 4, Currenex
Minimium Account: $25	Typical Spread on Majors: 0.3-2 pips
Minimum Transaction: 1000 units	Maximum Leverage: 500:1

Trading Point (8.47)

Headquarters: Limassol, Cyprus	Founded: 2009
Business Model: STP	Forex Online Since: 2009
Regulated by: FSA, BaFin, CySec	Platform: Metatrader 4
Minimium Account: $1	Typical Spread on Majors: 1-3 pips
Minimum Transaction: 10 units	Maximum Leverage: 500:1

Delta Stock AD (8.46)

Headquarters: Sofia, Bulgaria	Founded: 1998
Business Model: Market Maker	Forex Online Since: 2001
Regulated by: FSA, FSC, BNB, & CNVM	Platform: Delta Trading
Minimium Account: $100	Typical Spread on Majors: 0.1–2 pips
Minimum Transaction: 1000 units	Maximum Leverage:   200:1

eToro (6.92)

Headquarters: Limassol, Cyprus	Founded:  2006
Business Model:  STP	Forex Online Since:  2007
Regulated by:  CySEC, ASIC, NFA, CFTC	Platform:  eToro
Minimium Account: $50	Typical Spread on Majors: 3-4 pips
Minimum Transaction:  10,000 units	Maximum Leverage:  400:1

FastBrokers (Fast Trading Services LLC) (6.89)

Headquarters: Glendale, CA, USA	Founded: 2004
Business Model: ECN/NDD	Forex Online Since: 2005
Regulated by: NFA, CFTC	Platform: Meta Trader 4, Currenex ECN, PathFinder Trader ECN
Minimium Account: $1000	Typical Spread on Majors: 1 pip (variable)
Minimum Transaction: 10,000 units	Maximum Leverage: 200:1 (50:1 US)

Tadawul FX (TDFX) (6.85)

Headquarters: Limassol, Cyprus	Founded: 2006
Business Model: STP	Forex Online Since: 2006
Regulated by: CySec, FSA, BaFin	Platform: MetaTrader 4
Minimium Account: $500	Typical Spread on Majors: 1-4 pips
Minimum Transaction: 5000 units	Maximum Leverage: 500:1

MB Trading (MBTFS) (8.02)

Headquarters: El Segundo, CA, USA	Founded: 1999
Business Model: ECN	Forex Online Since: 2004
Regulated by: CFTC, NFA, FCM, SPIC, FINRA	Platform: MBT Navigator
Minimium Account: $400	Typical Spread on Majors: 1-2 pips
Minimum Transaction: 1000 units	Maximum Leverage: 100:1

Windsor Brokers,Ltd. (8.03)

Headquarters: Limassol, Cyprus	Founded: 1998
Business Model: Market Maker	Forex Online Since: 2005
Regulated by: FSA, CySEC	Platform: Windsor Direct 4
Minimium Account: $300	Typical Spread on Majors: 2-5 pips
Minimum Transaction: 10,000 units	Maximum Leverage: 200:1

Dukascopy (7.06)

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland	Founded: 1998
Business Model: ECN	Forex Online Since: 2004
Regulated by: ARIF	Platform: Swiss FX Marketplace, JForex
Minimium Account: $1,000	Typical Spread on Majors: 0.5-1 pip
Minimum Transaction: 1,000 units	Maximum Leverage: 100:1

Alpari (UK) Limited (7.41)

Headquarters: London, UK	Founded: 1998
Business Model: Market Maker	Forex Online Since: 2004
Regulated by: FSA	Platform: Metatrader 4/5, Qtrader, Alpari Direct, Systematic, L2 Dealer
Minimium Account: $200	Typical Spread on Majors: 1.6-3 pips
Minimum Transaction: 1,000 units	Maximum Leverage: 500:1

Criteria for Inclusion on the Best Forex Brokers List

Here is the criteria that is used to determine which brokers make this list -

The forex broker must have an independent trader rating of at least 6.8 (out of 10) based upon the data we have collected from individual forex traders from numerous websites worldwide. Please see our Top Rated Online Forex Brokers page for a full listing and details of our rating methodology. The broker must also be one of the 50 most popular online forex brokers per our popularity rankings. You can see the entire popularity rankings and a detailed explanation of how we determine these rankings on our Most Popular Online Forex Brokers page.

Each forex broker on our Best Online Forex Brokers List must show solid evidence of being regulated by at least one legitimate government regulatory agency overseeing the retail forex trade and must not have been sanctioned in any way in the past by regulatory agencies. The final requirement is that they must have provided us with at least the miminum required set of information for the broker snapshots above.

Orlando Law Firm Files Class Action Lawsuits Against FXCM and FXDD

A class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan Division) on February 8, 1011 by the Business Trial Group of Morgan & Morgan, P.A. against Forex Capital Markets, LLC (FXCM). Another suit was filed by the same law firm in the same court on February 11, 2011 against FXDirectDealer, LLC (FXDD).

In both cases the suit alleges fraud, deceptive trade practices, and racketeering and that both FXCM and FXDD have defrauded thousands of customers with unfair and deceptive practices with systems designed to systematically defraud customers out of their money and that they presented their forex trading platforms as fair and transparent when essentially it was a "rigged game".

The complaints accuse FXCM and FXDD of fraud by misrepresenting their trading platforms, saying the they were free from dealer intervention or manipulation but that they instead through their software systems used a number of tricks to interfere with customers' trades.

Among other things, these two very large forex brokerage houses are accused of -

Routing profitable customer trades to slow servers or sending false error messages when customers tried to close profitable trades.

Lured customers to the trading platform through a demo account which provided true market pricing but once the customers opened a live account, the true market pricing was no more.

Printed bogus "flash trades" to falsely trigger customers stop orders for given trades.

Manipulated slippage, which is the change in price between the time of a price quote and when the order is placed. Natural slippage should be roughly 50/50 in whether it benefitted the broker or the trader. The complaint alleges that documented proof of the great percentage of incidents of slippage that benefitted the brokers is proof of price manipulation.

Many of these practices are not new to experienced forex traders as they have been practiced by unscrupulous forex brokers for many years. We at Best Online Forex Brokers applaud the law firm of Morgan & Morgan for bringing these lawsuits. No matter the outcome, it will be interesting to see these practices be shown in the light of day for all to see.

This may just be the beginning of more lawsuits to come as Lead Trial Counsel Tucker H. Byrd said "We are continuing to bring legal action for redress of wrongs that we believe have occurred to thousands of Forex customers for years by dealers who have been entrusted with their customers' money. Unfortunately, many Forex dealers engage in questionable practices, and we intend to pursue any and all of them until we have put an end to these abuses."

And there is also this - The law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr. have filed a class action suit against FXCM. This class action is on behalf of FXCM stockholders and states that FXCM and the underwriters involved in their IPO, Credit Suisse, CitiGroup and J.P. Morgan, are each charged with "including or allowing the inclusion of materially false and misleading statements in the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in connection with the IPO, in direct violation of the Securities Act of 1933."

The fact that FXCM and FXDD are the two brokers named in these cases is also really no surprise given their independent trader ratings of 3.46 and 4.38, respectively. You see, experienced and profitable traders will pick up on these deceptive practices and bring their business elsewhere. This is why companies like these advertise so heavily. They are always in need of new clients because the good traders go elsewhere and the others lose all their money. So, as a word of caution, trust your fellow traders and stick with the brokers on this site that have a good independent trader rating. They can be found on our Top Rated Online Forex Brokers page.