UK Brokers

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
1

hi, is there any UK brokers anyone can recommend and/or any UK based traders here who can give their experiences?

Am currently trading using SB as it seems to be the easist and cheapest way to start, i’ve looked at CFD’s but they are crazy and would wipe me out on one trade lol!

Is there not any UK based Forex brokers or any Forex broker anyone can recommend for someone trading from the UK? I looked into it and could only find Barclays who require a 50K+ account!!!

Thanks

2

There are a few

If you want a metatrader based one

Alpari UK

other then that

FXCM UK
GFT UK
Saxobank

You will find a lot of the bigger firms have a place in London.

Im based in the UK and ive used US brokers with no issues, most of those actually keep the funds in UK banks.

3

You might consider these brokers which are domiciled in the U.K.:

[ul]
[li]dbFX — this is the retail brokerage division of Deutsche Bank; the bank is headquartered in Germany, but dbFX is domiciled in the U.K. and is regulated by the British Financial Services Authority;
[/li]minimum to open a standard account: 5,000 USD.

[li]IG Markets Ltd — subsidiary of IG Group Holdings PLC (UK);
[/li]minimum to open an account (mini or standard): no minimum.

[li]Alpari LLC — minimum to open an account (mini or standard): 200 USD.
[/li][/ul]

Also, consider the U.K. divisions of the following U.S. brokers:

[ul]
[li]FOREX.COM (UK) — the U.K. arm of Gain Capital Group LLC, the 4th largest independent retail forex broker in the U.S. (ranked according to Adjusted Net Capitalization); minimum to open an account: mini 200 USD, standard 2,500 USD.
[/li]

[li]GFT (UK) — the U.K. arm of Global Futures and Forex Ltd, the 5th largest U.S. broker;
[/li]minimum to open an account: mini 250 USD, standard 2,500 USD.

[li]FXCM (UK) — the U.K. arm of Forex Capital Markets LLC, the 6th largest U.S. broker;
[/li]minimum to open an account: micro 25 USD, standard 2,000 USD.

[li]CMS FOREX (UK) — the U.K. arm of Capital Market Services LLC, the 12th largest U.S. broker;
[/li]minimum to open an account (mini or standard): 200 USD.
[/ul]

Here are two websites which compare forex brokers (look for FSA in the “Regulated By” column; this stands for Financial Services Authority, and designates a U.K. broker, or the U.K. branch or subsidiary of a foreign broker).

Forex Brokers Information Table

forex broker|forex brokers firms|forex broker reviews ratings|forex brokers comparison

Here is a short blurb on the British Financial Services Authority:

Forex trading in the UK - issues and regulations

If you really want to plow through a long list of brokers, looking for those who operate in the U.K., here is a worldwide list of over 300 brokers:

Forex Broker Guide | Rate, Review & Compare Online Forex Brokers | Forex | Forex Brokers

I’m a U.S. citizen, residing in the U.S., but my forex trading is in the U.K. I trade through FXCM (UK), and I recommend them.
I have had no problems with my accounts, with my trades, or with customer service, with either FXCM (US) or FXCM (UK).

4

Many thanks guys for the info, i will have a look in due course.

I propose to open a Forex account once i reach 5K, if i reach that using my Strategy and through currently SB i know i must have a reasonable\good strategy so will go proper into this. But my question is, what’s the difference between my current SB and CFD’s and Forex accounts? Is it not the same ie: buying\selling currencies only difference being the instrument i use? Why not just stick to SB as it’s tax free and seems simpler to use???

5

If your in the UK and using one of the better SB brokers like fxcm or GFT (some SB brokers are garbage, with only a web / flash based platform) you will be using the exact same platform and pricing as a normal forex spot account.

Your better off tax wise doing what your doing.

6

Ok thanks again. For now using a web/flash based platform is ideal as i can access it at work lol!

But as to my question what is the difference between SB, CFD & Forex accounts then? is it the leverage? As i tried a demo CFD account and say on a SB account if i trade £1 pip and have a stop loss of 100 pips = £100 right, on a CFD it equates to something like £750+ ! how hell they work that out? And will that be same as on a Forex account? Very confused trader! :mad:

7

I am not sure how that particular figures have been arrived at. I was in the same situation as yourself but could not come to any particular conclusion. In the end I plumped for spread betting account. Tax wise it is the best option for UK based residents.

This seems to give me all that I required and though I have looked at stock indices and listed companies, my main interest was on the Forex market.

You should be able to get a demo account of a company of your choosing but this may be time limited unless you open a live account. With a live account, again there may be restrictions such as having to deal every 60 days without incurring financial penalty. You will need to check carefully before making your decision.

8

They should have examples of CFD calculations on their website. It depends on the actual contract. You can trade 1 contract on mini fx and that should be nearly the same as £1 on a SB. You have 10k capital gains tax free in the UK but after that CFDs are taxed.
If you’re trading forex only, then go with SB, it’s much simpler.
If you ever get into shares, then you can think about CFDs.
Spot forex, I can’t see any reason why someone in the UK would use them when they can spread bet unless they just like the MT4 platform…