Trustpilot is a reputable platform to assist you in finding the best service provider. If you're looking for the best rated Australian brokers, here is the list according to Trustpilot.
When it comes to choosing your own broker, the most important thing is to ensure they have the features you need. For example, if you are a scalper, then you might want to find a broker that allows scalping. Some key features you need to prioritize are:
- Trading Costs: Every broker has its own rules and policy regarding trading costs. So, before opening a live account, it's best that you go through every nook and cranny about how much they charge for everything. Besides spreads, small things like commission fees, deposit and withdrawal fees, as well as overnight costs should be accounted for.
- Customer Service: This might seems like a trivial matter compared to other features, but it is actually one of the most important ones. While Trustpilot provides you with a platform to complain, you don't always get a solution there. This is why you need a broker with active customer service. Preferably the one that is available 24/7 considering you might live in a different time zone from the broker's office.
- Mobile Trading: Technology has been a huge part of daily life nowadays. For the most part, it can assist us to do a lot of things during busy days. Now, a lot of traders prefer to trade in mobile devices, especially smartphones. If you are a busy person, you might want to find a broker with the best mobile trading services. Make sure that their apps allow you to open and close positions anywhere you go.
- Regulation: Don't forget that regulations play a big part when you are looking for the right broker. It's important to make sure that your broker follows certain rules and standards to ensure the clients' safety.
The thing is, checking a broker from just those aspects is sometimes not enough. Researching how actual clients feel about a broker is actually important too. That is why reading users' reviews is a great way to find out whether your broker is actually reliable or not. While the broker's official website always includes user reviews, you might wonder if they're actually genuine. For an alternative, you can always check out third-party platforms like Trustpilot.
Is Trustpilot Reliable?
To put it simply, Trustpilot is a review site where people can write down reviews on anything. It provides easy-to-read statistics on every business you can think of, including CFD brokers. They even have different categories to help you navigate easier. When you check on your desired broker, you might notice several stars next to the brand logo. These are the average ratings users give to the broker.
Now, on to the actual question here. Does the Trustpilot review really reliable? To put it bluntly, they can be a good source to find reliable user reviews. Right now, Trustpilot has over 100 million reviews and over a decade of experience. You can say it is a pretty legitimate platform. The best part of Trustpilot is that most users like to write detailed reviews regarding their experience with certain companies.
That means you can get a full view of what they experience, be it the good side or the bad side. Sometimes, the company's representative will come and reply to the review. This is amazing because you can see things from both sides. It can help you see which company cares the most about its clients.
That being said, Trustpilot is not without flaws. Because everyone can write a review, there is a chance of you encountering a fake review. It may come from a broker that is trying to get better reviews, or it's from haters that are trying to take its rival down. However, fake reviews can be easily spotted. For example, if you encounter several reviews that sound very generic, there is a huge chance that it's fake.
So, how do you find the best Australian broker in Trustpilot? It must be quite hard since there are so many brokers listed on the platform. As mentioned above, Trustpilot uses a rating system. A broker with a rating above 4 stars can be considered as 'best rated'. Here are some of them:
1. IC Markets
One of the best rated Australian brokers in Trustpilot is IC Markets. As of this writing, this broker has a 4.9-star rating on the platform. That means they have almost 90% excellent reviews in Trustpilot. Most of the testimonial sections for IC Markets are mostly talking about the amazing customer service and how the operator fixed their issues. But, there are also plenty of reviews about their features, such as how their spreads remain tight despite the volatility of the market.
That being said, the real problem is whether IC Markets fits your trading needs. When it comes to costs, IC Markets is widely known to be one of the best raw account providers. The ASIC-regulated broker only charges a $7 commission per round turn for their MT4 raw spread account. Meanwhile, the cTrader raw spread account's commissions only cost $6 per round turn.
If you are busy, IC Markets comes with mobile trading apps that are both available on Android and iOS. There are options to choose between MT4 and cTrader, so you can still use the most comfortable platform for trading. The best part is that the mobile trading apps let you experience what you can get from the desktop platform as well. You can change the chart types and place any execution modes that IC Markets provides. Various payment methods are also available, which makes this broker more popular.
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. CMC Market
CMC Markets is one of the best rated Australian brokers with 4.2 stars in Trustpilot. A lot of users seem to be pleased with their trading platform as well as the features. CMC Markets also offers competitive CFD spreads and commissions, with spreads on major FX pairs starting from 0.7 points and low commissions on shares from 0.1%. This broker provides clients with the best trading platform for both mobile and web.
3. eToro
With 56% excellent reviews, eToro manages to get 4.2 stars in Trustpilot. This broker is widely known for giving the best possible trading cost. They don't charge you for commission fees, management fees, rollover fees, and no added broker fees. eToro is also best known for cryptocurrency trading, so it's important that they have mobile trading apps.
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.
4. Pepperstone
With an amazing 4.7 stars in Trustpilot, Pepperstone becomes one of the best rated Australian Brokers there. For sure, Pepperstone can provide you with 0 spread through their Razor account which is another name for a raw spread account. Of course, they also present a mobile trading experience with reliable trading apps. Interestingly, their apps are connected to TradingView. This surely makes a difference as far as mobile trading can go.
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.
5. Plus500
Plus500 gets 4.2 stars and 57% excellent reviews in Trustpilot. They are known as one of the most affordable CFD brokers in Australia for good reasons. For example, they have 0 fees for opening and closing trades, deposits, and many more. They also equip themselves with Negative Balance Protections to cover their clients' funds from unpredictable market movements.
Plus500 is a UK-based company with its main offices located in the city of London. The company is authorized and regulated by FCA. For traders who are looking for a broker with top-tier regulators, Plus500 can be the right choice.
Plus500 offers 2,000 instruments to over a million clients. List of instruments available for trading with their CFD service include forex currency pairs, indices, cryptocurrencies, commodities, shares, and ETFs. Traders can choose instruments suitable for their needs.
Regardless, beginners should be extremely cautious while choosing their assets, as it can get daunting, confusing, and inherently risky.
When traders open an account, Plus500 will hold traders' funds on a segregated basis, following FCA's client money rules. Traders do not need to worry about Plus500 using their funds for hedging, as it is strictly prohibited to use clients' funds for this purpose.
Other advantages when trading in Plus500 are tight spreads and no commissions. The company only offers a single type of account, but traders can update the account from Retail to Professional by following some standards.
To apply Professional Accounts, traders have to fulfill at least 2 of the following 3 criteria eligible, such as sufficient trading activity in the last 12 months, financial instrument portfolio of over 500,000 Euro, and relevant experience in the financial services sector.
Plus500 is well-regarded for its services through the market spread, leverage up to of 1:30 for Retail Accounts, and leverage up to of 1:300 for Professional Accounts. Plus500 tries to give a sensible choice of leverage, which not only controls the risk but also helps novice traders to exercise more control over their trading emotions.
Founded in 2008, Plus500 provides almost the same features to both Retail and Professional account, including clients' money protection, negative balance protection, best execution for orders, clear and transparent information, as well as financial services compensation scheme. Still, Professional account is more advanced as it has access to FOS.
Based on the statistics, 76.4% of Retail account owners in Plus500 lose money when trading CFDs. Because of that, Plus500 always warns traders to consider their understanding of how CFDs work and their affordability to take high risk of losing money, before starting a trade in Live Account.
Even so, Plus500 has gained the trust of traders throughout the world. They have around 39 million positions opened, 304,000 active customers, and billions of volume trading processed by their system.
Plus500 always tries to give the best services to their clients. One of the ways to reach their goals is by making clients feel confident in their trading activity. They have a simple and easy-to-use trading platform, with an especially well-designed mobile platform. Traders can access the Plus500 platform via web-trader, iPhone/iPad, and Mobile App.
In their platform, traders will get advanced tools such as stop limit, guaranteed stop, free email and push notifications on market events, and alerts on price movements. All of these tools can help traders to navigate the market with better understanding.
As for payment methods, Plus500 provides various choices like Visa or MasterCard, electronic wallets (PayPal and Skrill), and bank transfer (direct bank to bank funds transfer).
For any concerns, troubles, or trading issues, traders can contact Plus500's customer service that is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The official website of Plus500 can be accessed in 24 languages.
Overall, Plus500 has some advantages and disadvantages. As it has a license from an elite regulator, traders can feel safe when trading in Plus500. It also provides a 24/7 support team to help traders. But, offering leverages up to 1:300 is not suitable for high-risk traders, such as scalpers, who indulge in high-frequency trading that holds positions in the market for a brief period and typically use high leverage.
When in Doubt, Check User Reviews
If you are feeling overwhelmed when looking for the best broker, checking the user reviews can be a great way to help you. However, it is important that you choose a third-party review platform as the rating and testimonial are less likely to be manipulated. Trustpilot is one of the best examples of this job. When you are checking the reviews, don't forget to read what everyone said about the broker. This way you can find out whether their service is up to your standard.
Other than Trustpilot, you can also check user reviews in Brokerxplorer's forum which was specially provided to accommodate traders' opinions, praises, complains, suggestions, and questions to various brokers.