There are plenty of Australian Brokers for beginners, but which one is the best? What qualifications they should have? This article will answer your questions.
Choosing a good broker can be daunting if you are a new trader. After all, you don't fully understand what you should be looking for in a broker. Luckily for Australian traders, there are a lot of great choices for beginners. But, they still have to evaluate them carefully and make sure the brokers can support them in terms of trading specifications and financial capacity.
What Makes a Broker Newbie Friendly?
There are some factors that make a broker perfect for new traders. Recognizing those things can help you choose the most suitable brokers for beginner-level trading activities.
1. Low Spread
Spread is a very important matter to consider since it refers to the difference between the bid and ask price in a broker. A high spread means traders must pay higher fees per transaction to the broker. Therefore, it's better to choose brokers with low spreads to minimize your trading expenses. After all, newbies are still trying to gain a foothold in the market so a low chance of winning is to be expected. When the outcome is mostly unpredictable, why add the risk with high spread if you can help it?
2. Low Deposit
When you use a broker, usually they will ask you to deposit some funds in order to start trading. The amount of money is varied from one broker to another. Some brokers even offer no deposit bonuses to cater to new traders. For rookies, it is preferable to trade with small deposits as you don't want to spend too much money when you don't have enough knowledge to overcome risks in the forex market.
3. Support for Trading Education
In order to broaden your knowledge, brokers provide educational materials on their official websites. Through this feature, you can learn a lot of things regarding trading, investing, and other related topics. Apart from articles, there are also webinars for interactive sessions so beginners can learn better with the help of experts.
4. Demo Account
A demo account is a type of account offered by trading platforms or brokers that allows potential clients to experiment with their service before they start trading in real markets. You don't have to use actual money in a demo account, so you can't realize any profit from it. Think of it as a trial account where you can practice with virtual money. This account also works great for professional traders who want to try out new strategies.
Hare are some of the best Australian brokers for beginners you can choose from.
1. IC Markets
IC Markets was founded by a team of professionals in the financial services industry. This broker took customer service seriously, and promise to offer the best possible supports for their clients. With only a $200 minimum capital, you can start trading with this broker. Additionally, this ASIC-regulated broker aims to provide traders with the lowest possible spread in all market conditions. They offer a raw spread account starting from 0.0 pips, available from their trading platforms.
For new traders, IC Markets features plenty of educational materials in addition to a demo account. You can learn general concepts about the forex market, how to analyze the market, and how to put it in your strategy. There are also a lot of educational videos to help you get started in forex.
IC Markets is an online forex broker operating under the company of International Capital Markets Pty Ltd. Traders under the Australian jurisdiction are provided with the trading service of IC Markets AU that is headquartered in Australia and licensed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
On the other hand, non-Australian traders who open an account in this broker are registered under IC Markets SEY that is based in Seychelles, and regulated under the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (SFSA). The dual operation is a result of the relatively new rules from ASIC that prohibit their regulated broker to offer trading services outside Australia.
Classified as an ECN broker, IC Markets provide clients with MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader as platform trading options. This broker also follows market trends to include Cryptocurrencies as one of its products, enriching its already wide selection of trading assets that include Currencies, Indices, Metals, Energies, Softs, Stocks, as well as Bonds.
The minimum deposit in IC Markets is in the middle range compared to other ASIC-regulated brokers, as it reaches $200 for every client. Market analysis materials are also prepared regularly for trading insights on IC Markets's official website, proving their competence to serve their traders with important contents created by market experts that work specifically for them.
For payment methods, IC Markets allows funding and withdrawal via wire transfer, credit card, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, FasaPay, UnionPay, as well as Bitcoin via BitPay. The more interesting aspect from this broker is its multi-base currencies that include USD, AUD, EUR, GBP, SGD, NZD, JPY, CHF, HKD, and CAD.
As the trading technology in IC Markets is highly equipped with co-located servers and extremely low latency (especially on cTrader), the broker is widely known for its capability in hosting traders with the special needs for high-frequency trading as well as scalping.
To sum up, IC Markets is a fitting destination for active traders looking for a well-regulated broker. IC Markets is also flexible in terms of base currency and payment methods, signaling their commitment to welcome traders beyond their home country. As of late 2019, IC Markets provided their website in 18 international languages including English, Korean, Indonesian, French, Spanish, Italian, Malay, German, and Chinese.
2. AvaTrade
AvaTrade proves to be one of the best brokers for beginners by allowing a minimum deposit of $100 and no deposit required for opening a demo account. This ASIC-regulated broker takes online trading seriously and provides you with the best trading applications that are also available for iOS and Android devices. To help newbies, they provide various types of trading content that include articles, eBooks, and tutorial videos.
Avatrade can be called one of the most well-rounded brokers that support almost all trading styles. Not only allowing hedging, scalping, and expert advisor (EA), Avatrade also completes their service with One-cancels-the-other order (OCO) and AutoTrading in many variants of automated trading systems.
AvaTrade was founded in 2006, with the primary mission to empower people to trade with confidence. If traders are still confused about what is the best broker for supporting trader's trading, AvaTrade perchance option of traders, because it has been evaluated and honored for some of the industry's most remarkable financial and technological achievements that it provided to clients.
In 2019, the Dublin-based broker got achievement from Daytrading.com as The Best Forex Broker 2019. Besides, the company is honored as Best Forex Broker, Best Bitcoin CFD Trading Provider of the year, and Best Affiliation Programme in the European area.
Furthermore, for traders who have high mobility, AvaTrade provides many platforms that allow traders to trade using laptops and mobile phones. The availability of the free Autochartist tool in the platforms is the best support for both novice and experienced traders because it makes it easier for them to find trading opportunities without the need to glance at charts all day.
The Autochartist free signal is provided in Gold Account, Platinum Account, and AVA Select. By opening an account in AvaTrade, traders don't have to pay for getting a full Autochartist service. Autochartist itself is a market scanner tool that can detect trading signals from various technical perspectives.
Traders can access AvaTrade in many variants of platforms, such as AvaTradeGO, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Automated Trading, Mac Trading, Web Trading, Mobile Trading, and AvaOptions.
In terms of regulation, AvaTrade is regarded as a superior broker because it has a lot of credible licenses. That way, even with deposits of up to ten thousand dollars, security can be guaranteed. Applying the Segregated Account system, AvaTrade is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (No.C53877), ASIC Australia (No.406684), JFSA Japan (No.1662), and South Africa (FSP 45984).
Can traders lose more than their deposit abruptly in the event of high volatility? AvaTrade explicitly answers no, as traders have negative balance protection.
With a minimum deposit of USD100, AvaTrade offers various leverage depending on the trading instruments; whether it is forex (starts from 30:1), indices (starts from 20:1), commodities (starts from 5:1), ETFs (starts from 5:1), or cryptocurrencies (starts from 2:1).
AvaTrade has committed to a set of values in relation to customers. Therefore, the company provides the best trading experience, offering multilingual customer service and the most sophisticated and user-friendly trading platform.
New traders can also learn forex trading in the Education tab on AvaTrade's official website. Traders will find a wide collection of articles, video tutorials, and more tools that will assist them every step of the way. It is an important requirement as the forex market might be a bit overwhelming and even scary at times, so traders need to make sure that they are fully prepared to begin trading in the real account.
There are many types of account types provided by AvaTrade. There is also an Islamic Trading Account, which is uniquely provided for Muslim Traders. Islamic account type is similar to a regular one with one key difference; it is not subject to any special fees or interests (swap-free), which sits well with the finance principles of Sharia Law.
If traders have felt confident for forex trading, traders can choose AvaTrade as an ideal choice. The minimum deposit and various platforms offered to make it a suitable destination for even beginners who would like to try forex trading for the first time.
3. FP Markets
With a minimum deposit of $100, FP Markets is one of the best Australian brokers suitable for beginners. This broker allows you to trade on consistently low spreads from 0.0 pips. They also promise no dealing desk and no requotes, ever. Besides a demo account, new traders can learn from FP Academy, where they can take courses about trading in general. The courses are divided into different skill levels starting from beginner to advance.
Keeping positions open overnight won't result in the overnight/rollover fee reducing your earnings, so you don't have to worry about it. FP Markets offers the most competitive swap rates in the industry by introducing Swaps Points in the form of a live swap rates list on the MT4 and MT5 platforms. Here are some examples:
- ACWI: -5.00 for long positions and -2.50 for short positions.
- ADAUSD: -20.00 for long positions and -20.00 for short positions.
- AGG: -5.00 for long positions and -2.50 for short positions.
4. FXCM
There are several reasons why FXCM is a great broker for beginners. For a start, they offer a low minimum deposit of $50, perfect for new traders with small funds. FXCM also claims that most of its traders receive positive slippage or zero slippage. That means, most of their trades possibly get executed at prices better than displayed spreads. Not to mention, their educational materials include a forex video library, as well as a free online forex classroom you can access almost every weekday. Of course, a demo account is also provided.
FXCM (Forex Capital Markets) is a brand name of a retail broker for trading on the financial market, especially the foreign exchange market. The broker was founded in 1999 and was originally headquartered in the United States. After a series of lawsuits from customers and case settlements by the US regulator (CFTC), FXCM moved from the US and became a UK-based broker, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registration number 217689).
Trading with FXCM is supported by enhanced execution with the Liquidity providers' stream pricing through the FastMatch Electronic Communication Network.
FXCM works with several global banks, financial institutions, and other market makers as their Liquidity providers including Barclays Bank, Citadel Securities, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, FASTMATCH, XTX Markets Limited, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Commerzbank, and Jefferies Financial Services.
This, in turn, enables FXCM to present its clients with fast trade execution, competitive spreads, low negative slippage, no re-quotes, no stop/limit restrictions, and up to 89% of orders are executed at the requested price or better.
For the trading platform, FXCM is remarkably known for its proprietary product called Trading Station. The latest version of this platform's web display is claimed to be built in Mac Friendly HTML5. It features a range of trading appliances such as integrated news, economic calendar, FXCM's top trading tools, social trading functionalities through FXCM Cloud, customized trading analytics, automated strategies, and advanced charting for better analysis. For flexible traders who prefer trading on-the-go, FXCM has also provided Trading Station in mobile version, both for iOS and Android users.
However, the company's in-house platform is not the only option presented for clients. FXCM also gives the choice to use MetaTrader 4 for clients who are more familiar with MetaQuote's product. Also, ZuluTrade access is enabled for clients with keen interests in copy trading schemes that transcend across brokers.
Instead of classifying account types based on minimum deposits, FXCM chooses to offer trading accounts based on the instruments traded. For FX traders, this broker provides Active Trader and Institutional accounts.
Active Trader is the ultimate account type for retail traders with two-tier pricing. Tier 1 applies a minimum deposit of $25,000 with a $30 commission for 1 million volumes traded, while Tier 2 has no detail on deposit requirement but gives better fee conditions. Spreads in both tiers start from 0.2 pips.
Institutional account, also known as FXCM Pro, is marketed as a wholesale execution and liquidity solution for retail brokers, hedge funds, and emerging market banks. The account presents trading spreads from 0.1 pips and other competitive benefits like API solutions as well as prime brokerage services.
For non-FX traders, FXCM provides a CFD trading account with low spread costs from 0.37 pips (in XAU/USD) and a wide range of class assets from precious metals, soft commodities, and indices.
Last but not least, a collection of in-depth articles is provided to help traders' knowledge and insights on the forex market. Trading tools like FXCM Plus, Market Scanner, Trading Signals, and Technical Levels are also developed to support traders who open accounts in FXCM .
In conclusion, FXCM is an experienced retail broker with a lot of "ammunition" to help traders with its best version of execution, pricing, and tools. It is a well-regulated broker backed with a long history in the financial market, even though it has a dark history in the United States' brokerage industry.
Still, the relatively high standard on minimum deposit ($25,000) puts FXCM as a broker suitable for experienced traders with good money management. It is not recommended for new traders with limited capital.
5. eToro
eToro is an ASIC-regulated broker that is mostly known for its social trading feature. With a starting capital of $50, you can start trading with them. To make things even easier, eToro offers competitive spreads as low as 1 pip for leading forex pairs. If you want to broaden your trading knowledge, simply check on eToro's online trading academy that is available on their website. You can read guides about investing and trading, as well as learn how to manage risk as a trader or investor. They also have a lot of interesting educational materials about cryptocurrency.
eToro established in early 2007, with a mission to make trading accessible to anyone, anywhere, and reduce dependency on traditional financial institutions. The company has head offices in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, USA, and Australia.
eToro (Europe) Ltd operates as a Financial Services Company authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license no. #109/10. Meanwhile, eToro (UK) Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the license FRN 583263.
As for eToro AUS Capital Pty Ltd, the legal standing is acknowledged by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to provide financial services under Australian Financial Services License 491139.
A broker that belongs to the 4-digit type, eToro offers both short-term options for day traders and long-term options for investors, such as their innovative Smart Portfolios, a fully managed thematic portfolio.
Since 2007, eToro has been at the forefront of the Fintech revolution. The most recent was launched in 2017, which is Smart Portfolios powered by Machine learning Al. Beyond developing Smart Portfolios, the company integrated Microsoft's machine learning technology into Momentum DD.
The new Smart Portfolios investment strategy uses artificial intelligence to find the steadiest traders who are most likely to generate a double-digit return and bundle traders into one fully-managed portfolio. eToro has hundreds of financial assets for trading across several categories including stocks, commodities, crypto assets, currencies, indices, and ETFs. Each asset class has characteristics and can be traded using a variety of investment strategies.
Some positions on eToro involve ownership of underlying assets, such as non-leveraged positions on stocks and cryptos. Employing CFDs will enable a variety of options, such as leveraged trades, short (sell) positions, fractional ownership, and more. For example, traders can invest as little as USD100 in gold, even if a single unit of gold cost USD1,000. Some of eToro's most popular CFD commodities include gold, oil, natural gas, silver, and platinum.
Currencies are traded on eToro only as CFDs. Also, CFDs enable Sell (short) positions and leveraged trade, even for assets that don't offer the option in traditional trading. Some of the popular currencies include EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/JPY, and USD/CAD.
Furthermore, An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is a financial instrument comprising several assets grouped to serve as one tradable fund. After opening an account in eToro, traders can invest as little as USD250 in an ETF that costs USD500. Some of the popular ETFs on eToro include SPY, VXXB, TLT, and HMMJ.
However, eToro also offers additional functions using CFD trading. All leveraged ETF positions in the UK are under FCA regulations. Meanwhile, all CFD positions executed by eToro Australia are under ASIC regulations.
The company has other advantages. In all financial assets that can be traded, eToro does not charge any deposit or trading frees other than spreads.
eToro charges a USD25 fee for withdrawals and the minimum withdrawal amount is USD50. Long (Buy), non-leveraged crypto, stock, and ETF positions are not executed as CFDs and do not incur any fees. eToro does charge overnight or weekend fees for CFDs positions, such as leveraged positions and short (sell) orders.
Fee updates always apply to open positions. Fees are subject to change at any given time and could change daily, without prior notice, depending on market conditions.
As a beginner, trader can use CopyTrading eToro. Different from the features of other brokers, traders can copy the strategies of professional traders without fee or profit-sharing. Therefore, 100% profit is fully owned by traders. For example, while trader A who is copied by trader B, produces a profit of 10% this month, then trader B also gets a profit of 10%.
The company is the world's leading social trading network. Since eToro operates in complete transparency, each trader has valuable information on their eToro profiles, so other traders that are interested to copy their trades can have assistance in creating their best portfolios.
Another feature that is unique to eToro is the personalized, social News Feed. Just like on any social media, traders can post their updates on feed, comment on other's posts, and gradually create a feed that is tailor-fitted to trader's trading and investing interests. On eToro social trading platform, traders will also get notifications when a trader writes a new post and many other important updates.
6. CMC Markets
As one of the best brokers for beginners, CMC Markets aims to provide tight spreads regardless of market volatility. Their lowest spread starts from 0.7 pips, which is one of the lowest in Australia. There is no minimum deposit in CMC Markets, so you can start trading immediately without having to prepare a certain amount of funds. Plus, you can trade on over 11,000 markets including forex, indices, commodities, and shares.
New traders can benefit from educational materials on CMC Market's official websites. Also, you can develop your trading skills with their free tools and resources, as well as join webinars to take insight from their market analysts. If you want to practice what you learn, this ASIC-regulated broker also offers a demo account.
7. XM
XM is an ASIC-regulated broker that is built by more than 600 professionals with years of experience in the financial industry. There is a minimum deposit of $5 in XM, and the spread is as low as 0.6 pips, making XM a good choice for beginners. There are plenty of educational materials on their websites as well, like live webinars, Q&As with their experts, and trading articles.
XM Group is a group of regulated brokers and it is owned by Trading Point Holdings Ltd. Entities under XM Group have significant experience as financial services providers worldwide.
Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd was established in 2009 with headquarters in Limassol, Cyprus, Trading Point of Financial Instruments Pty Ltd was established in 2015 with headquarters in Sydney, Australia, XM Global Limited was established in 2017 with headquarters in Belize and Trading Point MENA Limited was established in 2019 with headquarters in Dubai.
XM Group is regulated by the CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) - Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd, FSC (Financial Services Commission) – XM Global Limited, the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) - Trading Point of Financial Instruments Pty Ltd and DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority) - Trading Point MENA Limited.
XM is one of the more experienced brokers in the world of online forex trading today. Since its founding, the broker has experienced a lot of changes, including the addition of the Ultra-Low Account and EN Live Edu that is instructed by 16 global experts.
In terms of trading instruments, XM is a well-known diverse class assets provider, varying from Forex, Crypto, Stock CFDs, Turbo Stocks, Commodities, Equity Indices, Precious Metals, Energies, & Shares. XM prides itself to be the ideal broker in trading execution, offering a stat of 99.35% orders to be executed in less than 1 second. Trading in XM would be also provided with a strict no requotes policy, no virtual dealer plug-in, no rejection of orders, real-time market execution, and the choice for traders to place orders online or by phone.
Spreads on all majors can reach as low as 0.6 pips in Ultra-Low Account, while spreads on other accounts usually start from 1 pip.
To protect the client's fund in the event of extreme volatility, XM presents each account type with Negative Balance Protection. Minimum deposit of $5 applies to Standard, Micro, and also Ultra-Low Accounts. Traders who open accounts in XM are enabled a condition similar to a Cent Account environment in the Micro Account, in which the Contract Size for every lot is only 1,000 units. If it is applied with the smallest lot size in the MetaTrader platform which amounts to 0.01, it means that traders can go as small as 10 units per trade.
For the deposit, XM applies zero-fee deposits in most of its available payment methods. Traders can choose to fund or withdraw their accounts via wire transfer, credit card, as well as the most favorable e-payment choices like Skrill, Neteller, and FasaPay.
To give their clients the best experiment in trading, XM has given access to both MT4 and MT5 platforms, each is available for more than 6 display formats (PC, Mac, Multiterminal, WebTrader, iPad, iPhone, Android, and Android Tablet).
All in all, there is no doubt that XM has gone global with its deep commitment to providing services in more than 30 different languages across the world. Aside from easing traders' experience with mainstream trading platforms and high-quality trading execution, XM is open to various types of traders, from small capital traders to the more experienced ones with big deposits at the ready. Traders are even provided with a Cent Trading environment should they choose to register under Micro Account.
For their global approach, XM has ensured that traders from various countries could access their service easily. This results in the provision of different domains specified for traders in certain jurisdictions. For example, traders from Indonesia could access XM via this link.
Final Words
Forex trading can be complicated and difficult, but if you found the right broker to support your activity as a beginner, then you are already on the right track. There are several factors that make a broker perfect for newbie traders. Most of them focus on low deposits, low spreads, demo account availability, and educational materials. For Australian traders, the abovementioned brokers have what it takes to provide the best condition for traders.
5 Comments
Dec 1 2021
Other than spreads, demo account, and fees, what should I look for in a broker? I'm a new trader.
Dec 9 2021
low deposit is the way to go for sure. The reason is that most new traders don't have too much money to begin with, or they don't want to 'gamble' too much money, which is wise in my opinion.
Dec 10 2021
Not all brokers have similar virtual money in their demo account. I suggest finding the one with the most virtual money for more flexibility.
Dec 13 2021
Don't just focus on the spread, make use of their educational materials. The most important thing about being a new trader is always learning and getting better with each trade.
Dec 16 2021
Check the broker's rating and user's reviews, you don't want to end up with bad service and a lot of problems.