One of the most developed countries in Africa, South Africa is home to a large number of active forex traders. With this growing interest in the forex market, South African investors need to know which brokers are accessible and reliable.
So whether you are a citizen of South Africa or a foreign investor looking for the best licensed forex brokers in the country, this reading is for you!
Forex regulation in South Africa
The forex regulator in South Africa is the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) . And despite the unclear position on FSCA forex trading, it is highly recommended that you consider brokers with a good reputation in the past, not only in South Africa, but also in other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom and Australia for Australian forex brokers.
Thus, in order to list the best possible brokers for the South African market, we seek to select brokers that are also authorized by level 1 regulators.
Find out now which are the best Forex brokers in South Africa:
- FXCM : best offer and excellent support
- Oanda : excellent pricing plan and great support
- XTB : better platform usability
- Pepperstone : several Copy-Trading platforms
- IG : excellent offer and web platform
FXCM
Founded in 1999, FXCM is regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). FXCM is part of Leucadia Investments , a publicly traded company, and is considered one of the best Forex brokers in South Africa and in general.
FXCM offers two types of accounts available: standard and premium (Active Trader) for high volume investors.
For South African investors, the broker’s minimum initial deposit is $ 150 . To deposit funds in your account, FXCM offers several options: debit and credit cards, bank transfer, Skrill, Union Pay and Neteller. You can check these options and the cost of the operation here .
Even in the standard account, FXCM offers low commission rates and narrow average spreads. We researched the average spreads of the main Forex pairs for standard accounts, listed below:
- EURUSD: 1.1 pips
- GBPUSD: 1.7 pips
- USDJPY: 1.2 pips
- USDCAD: 1.6 pips
- USDCHF: 1.6 pips
- AUDUSD: 1.2 pips
- NZDUSD: 1.6 pips
The broker’s minimum initial deposit is $ 150. To deposit funds in your account, FXCM offers several options: debit and credit cards, bank transfer, Skrill, Union Pay and Neteller. You can check these options and the cost of the operation here .
Customers who deposit at least $ 25,000 can have an Active Trader account (premium fx trading account). This type of account comes with a lower commission rate of $ 25 per million and access to premium searches.
It is important to note that Active Trader accounts are charged commissions per transaction , in addition to reduced spreads, unlike standard accounts, where only spreads are charged.
FXCM has its platform called Trading Station , which includes several types of orders, advanced graphics applications and indicator presets. In addition to this platform, other trading platforms are also available: MT4 , ZuluTrade and Tradingview .
You can trade automated forex with an AI trading system at FXCM!
When using AI Trading , artificial intelligence will automatically invest in your FXCM account. You can monitor AI trading performance in real time directly on our panel or at the FXCM trading station.
You can also trade manually with AI Forex Signals at your own pace. In this case, just copy each forex signal and paste it into the trading room.
Open a trading account with the Forex FXCM broker by clicking here .
Oanda
The Oanda is an American brokerage firm founded in 1996. Considered a safe broker is regulated by Tier-1 authorities , such as the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Oanda is not a publicly traded company and does not operate a bank.
Oanda keeps client funds in top-tier bank accounts and has a policy of withdrawing client funds solely as a direct result of its activities related to trading or through withdrawal requests.
There are two types of accounts offered by Oanda: main account and premium account . Both accounts allow you to trade 70 forex pairs. The Main Account is charged on commissions and spread, while the Premium Account is charged on the spread only. The minimum spread on the Core account is 0.1 pips, against 0.6 pips on the Premium account. OANDA averages 1.2 pips for pairs like EUR / USD.
A particularity of OANDA is related to the size of the contract or minimum dimensions of the positions. Generally, a microlot is the smallest contract size for forex trading. However, OANDA offers the option of negotiating contracts of size 0.001 microlot. This means that you can trade forex from as little as $ 1.
FxTrade is the main trading platform offered by Oanda. It is a web-based platform that provides technical analysis tools, business performance analysis and allows customization of layouts. Oanda also offers the MT4 platform to its customers.
If you prefer, you can automatically trade with the AI trading system through Oanda for as low as $ 1! Like FXCM , you only need to link your Oanda account with Wiseinvest and our AI will automatically trade for you. That way, you don’t have to worry if you don’t have time to monitor the forex market! It is efficient, safe and saves time.
You can also trade manually with AI Forex Signals at your own pace. In this case, just copy each forex signal and paste it into the broker’s trading panel.
Open a forex trading account with Oanda and start trading from just $ 1 by clicking here .
XTB
A publicly traded broker, XTB was founded in 2002. It is regulated by a level 1 regulator : the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) . Thus, it deals with the protection of the Client’s money in strict compliance with FCA rules and regulations. All retail customer money is kept in segregated customer bank accounts. All client funds are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) , up to $ 109,502.95 per person in the unlikely event of their insolvency.
There are three types of accounts available at XTB . The standard account has a minimum spread of 0.5 pips, a minimum order of 0.01, a maximum leverage of 1: 500 and has no forex commission. The Pro account has a minimum spread of 0.1 pips, a minimum order of 0.1 lot, maximum leverage of 1: 500 and a commission starting at $ 3.50 per lot.
The Islamic forex trading account has a minimum spread of 0.7 pips, a minimum order of 0.01, a maximum leverage of 1: 500 and a commission starting at $ 10 per lot. The average spread of XTB for the EUR / USD pair is 0.7 pips for the standard account and 0.3 pips for the Pro account.
There is no minimum initial deposit amount when opening an XTB account . Funds can be deposited into your account by bank transfer, credit cards (MasterCard, Maestro and Visa) and e-Wallets (PayPal and Skrill).
XTB’s trading platform is xStation 5, which has heat maps, sentimental analysis or trader statistics.
It is available on the web, mobile and tablet. XTB also offers the MetaTrader 4 platform.
You can invest using Wise Signals on XTB . The signals are sent by e-mail and Telegram, requiring only copy and paste into the brokerage account.
Open a trading account with XTB by clicking here .
Pepperstone
Pepperstone was founded in Australia in 2010 and quickly became one of the largest forex brokers in the world. It is licensed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Pepperstone is not a publicly traded company. The broker keeps all client funds in segregated accounts held at a top Australian bank.
With two types of account, Razor and Standard, Pepperstone offers variety in its pricing plan. The Razor account is commission-based and offers a minimum spread of 0. The average spread of this type of account for the EUR / USD pair is 0.16 pips. The standard account is based on the commission incorporated into the current spreads. This type of account has average spreads for EUR / USD of 1.13 pips.
The minimum initial deposit when opening a Pepperstone account is $ 200.00 . The deposit methods are Visa and MasterCard, POLi, bank transfer, BPAY, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill and Union Pay.
Despite not having its platform, Pepperstone offers the MetaTrader 4 , MetaTrader 5 and cTrader platforms . In addition, they offer platforms for copy-trading, such as MirrorTrader, RoboX, ZuluTrade and MyFxbook. You can access the comparison of these platforms here.
You can use Wiseinvest Forex Signals at Pepperstone. Forex signals are sent by e-mail and Telegram, and you only need to copy and paste into the broker’s account.
Open a trading account with Pepperstone by clicking here .
IG
The IG was founded in 1974 and has more than 239,000 customers worldwide. It is one of the safest forex brokers, being regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and five other Tier-1 regulators. Thus, traders’ investments are held in segregated bank accounts, in regulated banks, and cannot be mixed with the broker’s own money.
In the event of a broker’s liquidation, all deposits are legally protected under fiduciary currency conditions, since clients’ funds are held in regulated fiduciary accounts.
IG offers two types of accounts, standard and one for professionals with higher turnover. Both accounts have different fees and commissions.
To open a standard account, you will need to deposit at least $ 150 . To deposit funds into your account, you can use Visa and MasterCard debit cards at no additional cost; credit card ( 1% fee for Visa and 0.5% fee for MasterCard ); PayPal ( 1% charge ) and BPAY.
The main IG trading platform is web based. It is customizable, the charts contain advanced features and allow the insertion of alerts for indicators. In addition, MetaTrader4 platforms are offered, a proprietary platform, L2 Dealer, ProRealTime and APIs. IG also has a mobile application for you to invest from anywhere.
You can use Wise Signals on IG accounts. The signals are sent by e-mail and Telegram, requiring only copy and paste into the brokerage account.
Open a trading account with IG by clicking here.
