FOREX Review

Review

FOREX.com is a currency trading website operated by Gain Capital Holdings, Inc., a financial services company that’s been in business since 1999. GAIN Capital is listed on The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: GCAP).

FOREX.com is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and is regulated in seven other jurisdictions around the world: “Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA) in the U.S., Financial Services Agency (FSA) in Japan, Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in HK, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).”

FOREX.com has won rewards for the best research and analysis by FX Street for 2014 and 2015.

Features

At FOREX.com, traders can choose between a standard trading account and an Active Trader account.  The minimum initial deposit required for a standard account is $50. The Active Trader account requires $20,000 to open. Active Trader account holders also get to work with a ‘Relationship Manager’ to help with all their trading needs.There is also a risk-free $50,000 demo account for traders of all levels. 

One of the most important factors that should always be considered when choosing a Forex broker are the costs of trading, which can be broken down into two categories: spreads and commissions, and overnight financing charges or payments frequently referred to as “swap rates”. The swap rates are unimportant for day traders, but spreads and commissions are always important. During the most active market hours, we found that Forex.com typically charges a floating spread of 1.7 pips on the benchmark EUR/USD currency pair within its Standard account. The typical USD/JPY spread is 1.7 pips and the typical spread for GBP/USD is 2.1 pips. Commissions are not charged, so what you see upfront in the quoted spreads is what you get. Spreads can be considerably lower in the Premium “Active Trader” account, with the spread on the EUR/USD sometimes reaching as low as 0.4 pips. That is a very competitive offer in today’s market.

Forex.com Video Tutorials

FOREX.com is one of the easiest websites to navigate. It is well tabbed and all features provide clear descriptions of the products and services being offered. There is a choice of over 45 currency pairs, CFD’s in 10 global indices and commodities and the broker has just added a list of Equities, Bonds and Rates. 

Traders can also trade options in CFDs, spot Forex, and binaries in over 3200 markets. These are offered through GFT which is now part of FOREX.com. GFT is based in the UK and is a global leader in online trading.

Education

The learning center at FOREX.com offers a variety of different educational material.

For self-study, the ‘Learn to Trade Forex’ course allows traders to study at their own pace and consists of seven lessons covering everything including pips, margin, technical analysis & tools, charting, and more. Along with the course, traders receive a demo trading account with $50,000 in virtual funds, so they can apply the lessons they covered on a live trading platform.

In their interactive course, traders can study online with the benefit of interactive tools and videos which illustrate how to understand chart patterns, anticipate market moving events  and manage risk . This course too comes with a demo trading account of $50,000 in virtual funds as well as workbooks and quizzes that can be printed out for later use.

There is a series of videos for beginners and others with technical analysis for more advanced traders. For more in depth understanding of how the various platforms work, there are instructional videos on the FOREXTraderPRO and MetaTrader4 platforms.

There are also several interesting online webinars which are available to all FOREX.com clients. Pre-registration is required. 

When it comes to market analysis, FOREX.com is well supplied. They offer live daily market updates, weekly insights on top financial events, quarterly outlooks and other special reports.

In the Pivot Points section, FOREX.com lists the daily, weekly and monthly support and resistance levels so traders can determine their pivot points. Pivot points are used by traders as a predictive indicator and to denote levels of technical significance. When used in conjunction with other technical indicators such as support and resistance or Fibonacci, pivot points can be an effective trading tool.

Technical outlooks are posted in the Technicals section and a full alphabetized glossary of financial terms is provided.

I was surprised when doing this review that there were no bonuses or promotions mentioned. This is uncommon in the Forex industry where bonuses and promotions act as a definite way to attract new trading clients. Perhaps they consider the 15% reduced pricing on major currencies and 2% interest on Premium account balances to be promotions but this is nothing like the bonuses and promotions offered by the competitors.

Trading Tools

There are several interesting trading tools at FOREX.com. Tradable is a tool that can be used by traders of all experience levels. Tradable comes pre-packaged with a selection of easy to use apps tailored to meet all comfort levels. Traders have complete flexibility to customize the platform to meet their individual needs.

ForexCharts by eSignal  gives traders access to more than 40 customizable indicators and drawing tools including Gann Lines, Donchian Channels, Fibonacci Circle and more and traders can plot against Global Treasury Information Services Inc. (GTIS) rates – a composite stream of over 275 contributors to get an overall picture of market action or, drill down to view only FOREX.com streaming data.

Forex.com eSignal Platform

Platforms

Besides the FOREXTraderPRO.com platform, FOREX.com offers several other trading platforms.

With MT4, traders have total lot size flexibility, including micro lots, mobile trading for iPhone & Android and automated trading using custom EAs. Hedging is allowed and there are no 3rd party bridges or auto syncs.

The MetaTrader4 platform offers quality trade executions, tight spreads and personal customer service. Traders can select over 77 Forex and CFD markets as well as take advantage of other integrated features including streaming news, extensive technical research from Trading Central and in-house analysts as well as pattern recognition software from Autochartist.

At the time of this FOREX.com review, a third trading platform had just been added to the lineup of platforms offered at FOREX.com—the Dealbook. The Dealbook platform is offered under the GFT brand and traders can choose from 120+ currency pairs with spreads as low as 1 pip on the majors and over 3,200 markets as CFDs, spot FX, binaries and options.

Advanced charting is available through the Forex.com DealBook platform and it is available as download, web and mobile with award winning apps for Andoid, IOS and Kindle Fire. Advanced charting allows traders to monitor their position and evaluate trends and forecast market moves all in one place. The DealBook  software provides easy-to-read charts, a bundle of free indicators as well as a wide selection of customization options.

Deposits/Withdrawals

FOREX.com accepts funds by  wire transfer, where there is a minimum transaction of $50 and a maximum transaction of $10,000. Funds can also be wired via Sofortbanking.

Customer Support

Customer support is available 24/7 via email, telephone and live chat. I was pleased to see that chat was reached only by clicking on the chat tab and that it doesn’t pop up immediately upon opening the site.

Trade orders by telephone are accepted by FOREX.com UK during market hours.

Conclusion

FOREX.com has covered all bases. Their website is super responsive and user-friendly and all topics are covered in depth and are clearly described so that the information is understood by traders of all levels of trading experience. It’s nice to see that there is a very generous demo account but I would have preferred to have more choices of accounts over and beyond the two that are offered. 

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Features

Despite a choice of only two trading accounts, FOREX.com offers more features than many other Forex brokers. The Standard and Premium accounts offer excellent opportunities for both novice and experienced traders to trade on user-friendly platforms and with the security and backing of a large listing of regulatory organizations. 

There are two platforms to choose from—FOREXTrader and MetaTrader4. Both platforms provide for numerous order types besides the usual market orders, limit orders, stop orders etc. These include orders such as One Cancels Other (OCO's) whereby if one part of the order is cancelled the other part is executed. If one part of the order is filled, the other is automatically cancelled.

With the If/Then order if the first “If” order is executed then the second  “Then” order becomes an active unassociated single order. Unassociated orders are not attached to a trade and act independently of any position updates. In cases where the “If” order does not execute, the “Then” single order will remain dormant and will not be executed when the market reaches the specified rate. When either part of an If / Then order is cancelled, all parts of the order are cancelled as well.

The Education section offers many interesting features both for self-study and interactive learning. Both of these can be done at the student’s own pace and much of what is learned can be tried out on the demo account which is offered to the trader with $50,000 virtual money.

Customer support is available in several languages 24/7 and can be accessed via email, telephone and chat. 

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FOREXTrader PRO

FOREXTrader PRO is one of the main platforms offered at Forex.com. It can be customized so traders can optimize their profits.

It is available via web, download and full suite of mobile solutions including iPhone, iPad. It is also accessible to Mac users. Traders can select  50 currencies, commodities and CFDs, and metals.

Forex.com - FOREXTrader PRO Platform

The Strategy Center provides access to 15 customizable pre-defined trading strategies as well as the opportunity to build strategies using the Strategy Wizard. The Strategy Center includes the ability to back test strategies against historical data and activate them to generate buy and sell signals in real time.

FOREXTrader PRO offers advanced charting facilities allowing traders to “take action quickly and with precision”, which is not an idle boast. Traders can trade directly from the chart they are analyzing, by dragging lines with a click of the mouse to edit orders and manage trades at great speed, moving as fast as the market. Additionally, preset indicators can be customized to suit a trader’s individual needs and trading style. Expert analysis is offered by Forex.com with the aim of empowering traders to keep up with key market-driving information, including integrated insights and trade ideas.

FOREXTrader PRO vs. Metatrader 4

In addition to this Forex.com proprietary platform, traders can opt to choose to trade using MetaTrader4 which offers over 77 Forex and CFD markets. Traders can take advantage of other integrated features including streaming news, extensive technical research from Trading Central and in-house analysts as well as pattern recognition software from Autochartist, an independent research provider.

The MetaTrader 4 platform supports several order types including market orders, limited orders, One Cancels Other (OCO's), If / Then, trailing stops, and stop orders.  Given the choice of making the ForexTrader vs MetaTrader4 decision, it should be noted that the latter is used primarily for Forex and CFD trades. Despite its age, Metatrader 4 arguably the gold standard of Forex trading platforms, with many successful traders claiming it has never been bettered for straightforward retail trading use, although significant criticisms remain regarding its ability to back test strategies, as well as certain issues which can delay execution speed as orders are bridged through to broker back offices.

Autochartist is also available for use on FXTraderPRO and is a very useful program for all Forex.com platforms. Autochartist automatically detects emerging chart patterns and trade ideas in the Forex, index and commodity markets by continuously scanning markets during trading hours.  

When it comes to trade execution, the instant Execution Mode is designed for use in combination with the one-click dealing feature. When Instant Execution mode is enabled, market orders will only be executed at the requested rate or within a user-specified deviation. Traders can define their own price tolerance and receive 5 digit pricing.

FOREXTrader PRO provides updated Reuters news and offers extensive research and analysis. Margins are available up to 200:1 on CFDs and up to 400:1 on FX.

An account summary bar in the lower left corner of the trading platform window displays Required Margin and Available Margin, updated in real-time. Available Margin represents the difference between the Tradable Balance and the Margin Utilized. 

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