Best Forex Brokers for Professional Traders

The best forex brokers for professional traders are not only determined by the license and years of experience. There are certain features and conditions that have to be met.

Like any other type, professional traders have special needs and unique preferences when it comes to trading. Therefore, finding a broker that's able to accommodate all that is highly crucial. Not all brokers are suitable for everyone. Some of them are:

• FBS: Great leverage supports of up to 1:2000
• IC Markets: Free upgrade from retail to professional status.
• Admirals: Fit the European and Australian standards in professional trading.
• Exness: Specific pro accounts and Premier Program with extra benefits.
• Pepperstone: 1000+ CFD assets to enrich your professional portfolio.
• Interactive Brokers: Special tools like API and SmartRouting in the pro account.
• IG Markets: Complete package of research tools, tradable markets, and high security.
• Saxo Bank: Good for active professional traders, also serves exclusive VIP services and managed portfolios.
• CMC Markets: Exclusive services for professional traders at no cost in CMC Pro account.
• City Index: Special account for pro traders with diverse research tools and SMART signals subscription.

How does each broker above fit into the criteria? To answer the question, let's explore the aspects of what professional traders typically look for in forex brokers:

What Makes a Broker Good for Professionals?

As mentioned before, professional traders have special needs and trading preferences. When it comes to choosing a broker, there are several aspects that need to be considered, such as:

The Availability of a Professional Account

Brokers usually provide several account types at once. They can base the difference on many factors, but the most common consideration is regarding the level of trader experience. Hence, many brokers typically have different sets of accounts for beginners, intermediate traders, and professional traders.

A professional account is special in its conditions like having much higher minimum deposits, no limit at maximum orders, more tools to accompany various trading strategies, advanced platforms, and even an option to be an account manager or strategy provider. The purpose of this account is not to help traders get affordable trading conditions and limit risks, but to optimize whatever strategy is carried out by the traders. That is because professional traders are supposed to maintain their winning rates rather than trying out different systems to find out which one suits them best.

If a professional account is not specifically provided, a broker can still be suitable for professional traders if they offer an option to upgrade clients' status from retail to professional. This upgrade surely needs certain requirements that only professional traders can fulfill.

The Amount of Maximum Leverage

Many people regard professional traders as wise enough to not use higher leverage. But if we're talking about a professional trading account in forex brokers, especially the EU and ASIC-regulated ones, high leverage is meant for professional traders only. This is the right way of regulating leverage as opposed to making it available for all traders since beginners tend to choose high leverage without really knowing the high risks.

Therefore, well-regulated brokers in this era only make high leverage available for professional traders. It can go as high as 1:200 to 1:500, a contrast from common leverage for retail traders which are limited to 1:30 or 1:50 at max. Even so, it is not easy to get high leverage as a trader has to prove their professional status by complying with whatever requirements set up by the brokers to ensure that the trader would be responsible enough in handling high leverage.

The Trading Perks

Professional traders tend to utilize much advanced strategies and tools as they are experienced in using them. For example, rather than the common buy and sell orders, professional traders could depend on OCO orders to maximize their news trading. Another example, a professional trader would prefer to use a DoM (Depth of Market) platform as they consider it necessary as one of their trading parameters.

Therefore, a good broker for professional traders should offer many trading perks beyond the usual trading features. The more tools and sophisticated the service, the better it would be for professional traders.

The Protection of Clients' Funds

Unlike beginners or retail traders who like to trade small, professional traders tend to go with big capital so they can have a significant amount of profits. This leads them to take funds protection very seriously. For a starter, they would make sure that the broker has years of experience behind them, is registered in at least 1 top-tier jurisdiction, provides a segregated account, and presents safe deposit and withdrawal methods. A broker for professional traders may need to also have negative balance protection, a compensation scheme, or even funds insurance programs.

Here are the Best Brokers for Professional Traders

Based on the criteria above, we've gathered the following brokers for pro traders:

FBS

The FBS Professional Account offers an empowering trading experience, equipped with a range of exceptional features. With impressive leverage of 1:2000, professional traders gain extensive trading power. Traders can also benefit from floating spreads as low as 0.5 pips with no commission.

Embark on your trading journey with a minimum deposit as low as $200. Enjoy access to a wide array of instruments, including 36 Forex pairs, 8 metals, 3 energies, 11 indices, 127 stocks, and 5 crypto pairs. Traders can trade through the highly reputable MT4 and MT5 platforms.

IC Markets

IC Markets is a reliable broker suitable for experienced traders. By applying to this broker, traders can get access to more than 2,000 tradable assets, including over 60 forex pairs.

IC Markets does not exactly offer a specific account for professional traders, but it allows traders to submit a re-categorization application from retail to professional. Upgrading to a professional client can be done with no additional cost. One of the biggest perks is that you can get higher leverage than regular traders. Normally, the broker is required to restrict leverage 1:30 and 1:10 on the products offered to retail clients, but as a professional client, such restrictions simply don't apply to you.

Here's a general overview of IC Markets as a broker for professional traders:

Admirals

As one of the most experienced brokers in the industry, there's no doubt that Admirals fit the description of a good broker for professional traders. There are a number of analytical tools provided after registering with this broker, and their services for professional clients are up to European as well as Australian standards.

Here's a general overview of Admirals as a broker for professional traders:

Exness

Popular among retail traders, Exness attempts to reach professional traders by providing a set of pro accounts with their own specifications and conditions. Furthermore, the broker launches a special program called Exness Premier to better support their professional clients with extra benefits such as priority customer support, enhanced trading analytics, and special rewards.

Here's a general overview of Exness as a broker for professional traders:

Pepperstone

Pepperstone is a reliable Australian broker that was created by professional traders who were not satisfied with the quality provided by most brokers. Today, the broker offers one of the best trading conditions for clients from all over the world and large options for deposit and withdrawal. After opening an account in this broker, you can choose from more than 1,200 CFDs including over 60 currency pairs and other assets.

Here's a general overview of Pepperstone as a broker for professional traders:

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers has always been quite a trustworthy broker for active professional traders. The broker offers more than 10,000 tradable CFD assets that might appeal to advanced traders. The trading platform tends to satisfy advanced traders more as there is an unmatched range of tradable securities and trading tools to use.

Interactive Brokers offers IBKR Pro Account for professional investors and active traders. This type of account comes with several special benefits, such as access to IBKR API and IB SmartRouting. The latter enables traders to get the best execution by searching for the best available prices for various assets and combinations of assets across exchanges and dark pools.

Here's a general overview of Interactive Brokers as a broker for professional traders:

IG Markets

IG Markets is a popular broker that's widely known to be a great choice for professional traders. The award-winning broker has proven to offer a comprehensive trading package that features various research and educational tools, an impressive range of tradable markets, and high security. 

Here's a general overview of IG Markets as a broker for professional traders:

Saxo Bank

Saxo Bank is a well-known multi-asset broker that offers more than 60,000 tradable instruments including forex pairs, bonds, ETFs, commodities, crypto derivatives, and more. The broker has over 850,000 clients from over 170 countries worldwide and more than 270,000 trades executed daily. Suitable for active traders, Saxo Bank provides a rich and memorable experience with an immense range of trading tools, research sources, and premium features.

Here's a general overview of Saxo Bank as a broker for professional traders:

CMC Markets

CMC Markets is a leading UK-based forex and CFD broker that is fully regulated in several countries. Its long track record indicates that the broker is reliable for professional clients. Not only that, the broker also offers a sense of security since it's under the regulation of several top-tier regulators in the world and a wide range of tradable products including stocks, commodities, bonds, forex pairs, CFDs, ETFs, etc.

Moreover, professional clients can open an exclusive professional account called the CMC Pro and enjoy a number of exclusive benefits at no additional costs. This includes early access to new products and unreleased programs, as well as a personal account manager that will provide special support for its client.

Here's a general overview of CMC Markets as a broker for professional traders:

City Index

City Index is another excellent choice of broker for professional traders. The broker is known to offer some of the best trading and analysis tools to help traders make better trades. It also offers a bunch of great trading conditions and account types, including the Professional Trader Account which aims to benefit highly experienced traders.

Here's a general overview of City Index as a broker for professional traders:

The Bottom Line

As explained in the article above, professional accounts surely offer many interesting benefits such as higher leverage and access to more sophisticated tools. You'll get more freedom with your trades and will be treated as a professional.

However, it is important to note that professional accounts are also very risky. As a professional client, you'll waive some of the protections made for retail traders as some brokers choose to deactivate some of their safety features like the negative balance protection for professional traders. This policy is simply made with a consideration that professional traders tend to be wise and smart enough to not endanger their accounts.