Cutting down trading costs can be more complicated than it sounds. One way to do it is by trading with a low-commission broker. Here are some great Australian brokers to consider.
Forex broker offers a number of features to help traders get the best trading condition possible. Sometimes they offer fast executions, and other times they choose to minimize trading commissions. Brokers charging commissions without spreads are likely to apply their fees per lot and per transaction. So, when it comes to trading with commissions, you also need to mind your trading size in order to keep your trading costs low.
For Australian traders, looking for a good broker with low commissions might be a little bit easier. The reason is that credible brokerages in Australia are regulated by The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Here is a list of ASIC-regulated brokers that offer low commissions:
- ICMarkets: $3 per 1 standard lot in cTrade Raw account
- eToro: No commission for stocks and ETF trading
- Admiral Markets: $1.8 per 1 standard lot in Zero accounts
- XM: No commission except for the Shares account.
- Pepperstone: $0.04 per 0.01 lot for one-side trading.
Further details about each broker above can be found below.
1. ICMarkets
ICMarkets is a great low-commission broker that has been regulated by ASIC. The company is registered under the name of IC Markets Group Pty Ltd with ACN 648 014 215.
This broker is well known for offering raw spreads starting from 0.0 pips. ICMarkets promise no requotes and no trading restrictions. This multi-assets broker applies commission fees of $3.5 per lot per side for the MT4 Raw Spread account.
Meanwhile, for a cTrader Raw Account, the fee is $3 per $100,000 trades. For a standard account, there will be no commission fees charged, but the spread starts from 0.6 pips, which is a good deal for a regular account.
Aside from commission, ICMarkets also help their traders to cut down trading costs by offering an Islamic Account. This is also known as a swap-free account and was created for clients who cannot earn or pay for swaps due to their religious beliefs. This feature is available on both Raw Spread and standard account types on their MT4, MT5, and cTrader platforms.
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. eToro
Another low-commission broker with an Australian license to consider is eToro. This company applies no management fees, no rollover fees, no ticket fees, and no added broker fees. It is registered in ASIC under the name of eToro Australia Pty Ltd with ACN 621 283 369.
The best part is, this broker also doesn't charge commission fees for stocks and ETFs. There are some drawbacks, however, in which traders will be charged a withdrawal fee of $5.
Any withdrawals and deposits are conducted in USD, so other currencies will have to be converted first and therefore incur a conversion fee. Also, keep in mind that after 2 months with no login activity, a $10 monthly inactivity fee will be charged on any remaining available balance.
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.
3. Admiral Markets
In Australia, this broker is operating under Admirals AU Pty Ltd with an ASIC license (ACN 151 613 839). Admiral Markets commission fees start from $1.8 for Zero.MT4 and Zero.MT5 accounts. The commission will be charged per 1.0 lots of transaction value on those accounts.
That is a commission for a single-side trade. Commission for a round-turn trade is doubled and is fully charged at the opening of the order.
Meanwhile, commissions for Australian Share CFDs on Trade MT5 accounts is 0.15% of the transaction value per side, with the minimum commission being AUD8 per transaction.
4. XM
XM broker is regulated in ASIC under Trading Point of Financial Instruments Pty Ltd with ACN 164 367 113.
For traders who want to cut their trading costs, the ultra-low account is the best choice. It has spread as low as 0.6 pips for all majors, with minimum trade volume starting from 0.01 lots. In general, XM has several account types with no commission fees, except for the shares account.
The minimum deposit is $5 and there is an option for an Islamic account as well. Hedging is allowed iso traders can take further steps to protect their funds and profits.
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.
5. Pepperstone
Pepperstone Financial Pty Ltd is regulated by ASIC with an official ACN of 147 055 703. The lowest commission fees in Pepperstone comes from their MT4 and MT5 razor accounts, which is starting from $0.04 per side for every 0.01 lot traded. Meanwhile, for the cTrader account, the commissions are charged as $6 USD per round-trip.
This brokerage also charges a swap rate, also known as the rollover interest rate (that's earned or paid) for holding positions overnight. The swap rate is released weekly by the financial institutions this broker works with and is calculated based on risk-management analysis and market conditions. There are many options for you to make deposit in this broker.
Pepperstone was founded in 2010 by a team of experienced traders with a shared commitment to improve the world of online trading. Based in Melbourne, Australia, they grew to become one of the largest forex brokers in the world. If traders want to find a broker that provides low spreads, fast execution, and award-winning support, then the answer is Pepperstone.
Pepperstone has a strong legality guarantee because it has been licensed by the Australian regulator ASIC and FCA. Traders' funds can be deposited in segregated accounts at top Australian banks, one of which is the National Australia Bank (NAB). Therefore, the safety of funds is not a concern if a trader chooses to open an account in Pepperstone.
They succeeded in collaborating with 23 top banks to bring Bid to investors instantly via optical fiber. This allows all orders to be executed 100 percent automatically with low latency up to 0.05 milliseconds, without dealing desk intervention and requotes, as well as with super low trading costs.
Trusted by over 73,000 traders around the world, Pepperstone processes an average of USD12.55 billion of trading volumes every day. Because of that, they have many awards such as:
- The Best Global Forex ECN Broker 2019 and Best Forex Trading Support-Europe
- Best Australian Broker and Best Trading Platform 2018 by Compareforexbrokers.com
- Best Forex ECN Broker, Best Forex Trading Support, and Best Forex Trading Conditions by UK Forex Awards 2018
With the many rewards gained, Pepperstone hopes to attract more and more traders from all over the world. The rising performance of Pepperstone is not only due to the super-tight spreads and fast execution that it provides, but also because many traders are interested in trading with deposits in currencies other than US Dollars.
For this reason, Pepperstone is one of the most market-responsive brokers because it is willing to accept deposits in 10 currencies, which include AUD, USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, CHF, JPY, NZD, SGD, and HKD.
Trading in Pepperstone would allow traders to choose between 11 trading platforms: MT4 for desktop, MT4 Mac, MT4 iPhone, MT4 Android, MT4 iPad/Tablet, MT5, WebTrader, cTrader WebTrader, cTrader cAlgo, and cTrader Mobile. The choice of trading platforms may seem confusing to novice traders, but actually, it is very useful because it has fast execution.
When trading forex, traders can enjoy raw spreads from 0.0 pips on Razor accounts, over 61 currency pairs, and commission-free account funding on a wide range of deposit options. In addition to currency pairs, Pepperstone provides many types of trading instruments, including CFDs for indices and shares, commodities, and cryptocurrencies.
Instruments in commodity trading are pretty much diversified. Not only metal, gold, and silver, but traders can also trade with soft commodities such as cotton, sugar, coffee, cocoa, and orange juice. Pepperstone also provides trading on energy (oil and gas).
There are two types of accounts provided by Pepperstone, namely Razor accounts, and Standard accounts. If you area beginner, it is recommended to choose a Standard account with an average EUR/USD spread of 1.0-1.3 pips and free commission.
Those with particular trading styles such as scalpers and algorithmic traders may enjoy the lower cost setup traditionally seen in a Razor account, with a commission from AUD7 round turn of 100k traded. You can start trading with a minimum lot of 0.01 (micro) and 1:400 leverage.
As a Pepperstone client, a trader can fund and withdraw with alternative methods including Visa, Mastercard, POLi internet banking, bank transfer, BPay, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, and Union Pay.
If you are new to trading or looking to practice your trading strategies in a risk-free environment, you can create Demo Account in Pepperstone. But if you are an experienced trader or prefer to learn by doing, Pepperstone provides a Live Account that allows you to trade with live executions and pricing.
Traders can also follow and copy strategies from popular traders using third-party services while learning how to improve their trading abilities. Pepperstone has partnered with a range of social trading platforms that traders can choose from, such as Myfxbook, ZuluTrade, Mirror Trader, MetaTrader signals, and Duplitrade.
Conclusions
There are various ways to cut down trading costs. The majority of Australian traders will try to find brokers with the lowest spreads possible. They believe that spreads are the best way to trade with less money involved. While this is not entirely wrong, it's not the only thing they should be paying attention to.
Low-spread brokers are most likely to administer commission fees. So, the best way to cut trading costs is to find a low-spread broker with low commission fees. For Australian traders, low-commission brokers that are mentioned above can be a good start.
If you aim to look for the highest-rated Australian brokers, look no further than The Best Rated Australian Brokers on Trustpilot.
2 Comments
Nov 25 2023
I interested with Pepperstone since I had read bout all the things and offers that Pepperstone offers. BUt there is one thing that I am unsure which is the fees that occured in there. It stated that The lowest commission fees in Pepperstone comes from their MT4 and MT5 razor accounts, which is starting from $0.04 per side for every 0.01 lot traded. Meanwhile, for the cTrader account, the commissions are charged as $6 USD per round-trip.
I want to ask what is the commission that charged per rounf trip? I first time hear about it, and did had any different with the other commission fee like that? Sorry if my english is bad..
Nov 27 2023
The commission charged per round trip, as mentioned for the cTrader account with Pepperstone, refers to the total cost incurred for both the opening and closing of a trade. In this case, it's specified at $6 USD.
Now, the reason this is termed a "round trip" is that it encompasses the entire journey of a trade – from initiation to closure. This is distinct from some other commission structures where fees might be applied separately for opening and closing positions.
In comparison to the commission fees for MT4 and MT5 razor accounts at Pepperstone, which are specified per side for each 0.01 lot traded, the cTrader account employs a different approach by consolidating the fees into a single round-trip charge.
It's essentially a matter of different fee structures, and the choice between them often depends on individual trading preferences and strategies. If you have further questions or need more details, feel free to ask!