There aren’t many Forex brokers available to traders from the United States (not licensed and regulated ones at least).
Regulated US Forex Brokers
Why are there so few regulated forex brokers? It’s because the US imposes strict regulations and laws on its finance industry. This provides financial security to all of its citizens.
The advantage of these strict regulations is that you can feel safe with the US brokers that are regulated and licensed.
| Rank | Broker | Min. Deposit | Regulated | Trust Score | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1
|
 |
$50 | YES | 99 |
A variety of trading forms have provided the need for establishing different governing bodies that offer licenses and regulations.
USA Forex Brokers
There are many trading forms operating in the United States and Forex trading is one of the most popular.
It is in fact the leading form of online trading internationally.
The U.S is fairly limited compared to many other countries, a testament to the rigorous standard upheld by prevailing government agencies.
The Primary authorities in charge of overseeing all Forex trading activities in the United States are:
- the National Futures Association or NFA
- the Commodities Futures Trading Commission or CFTC.
The key thing to understand about these institutions is that their regulations are not based so much off legal procedures so much as ethical ones for the online trading community.
Forex Brokers That Accept US Traders
Here are some of the top Forex Brokers currently available for traders based in the United States.
1. Forex.com
Forex.com has been around since 1999 and is run by Gain Capital Holdings. It is one of the highest rated Forex brokers anywhere in the world and it meets the licensing and regulatory protocols under the jurisdictions of seven government authorities including the NFA, CFTC, FCA and ASIC.
At Forex.com the types of accounts available to traders are a standard trading account and an Active trader account.
Where the standard trading account requires minimum of $50 worth of an initial deposit to be activated, the Active Trader account requires $20,000. The added benefit of the latter is that traders are supplied with a so called ‘Relationship Manager’ to further assist their trading activities.
There is also a demo account available for all traders with an initial deposit of $50,000.
When it comes to trading costs, spreads and commissions are two very important factors a trader must consider when choosing a Forex broker to work with.
- For currency pairs such as EUR/USD and USD/JPY, the usual floating spread charged by Forex.com is 1.7 pips.
- The GBP/USD pair, it is normally 2.1 pips.
- Active trader account, have a lower spread. For instance for EUR/USD currency pair, it can go down to 0.4 pips.
The trading platform is another important feature offered by a broker. The one offered by forex.com is simple and easy to operate with virtually no room for confusion. Trading options are available in binary, spot forex and CFDs in over 3200 markets.
The main criticisms with this broker is that it offers no bonuses or promotions and variety of available accounts is limited to just two.
2. FXCM
FXCM or Forex Capital Markets is one of the first brokers to implement online trade. It was started in 1999 and is based in the United States. Its headquarters are situated in New York and subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Italy. It is licensed and regulated by the authorities of each jurisdiction that it operates in, most notably the FCA, NFA, and ASIC.
A diverse range of account types are offered by FXCM to suit novice traders as well as experienced traders.
The standard account requires an initial deposit of $5000 to be activated while the Active Trader account requires $25,000. A mini-account is available as well and requires a minimum deposit of $50. It offers 50:1 leverage for traders based in the United States and 1:200 for traders based overseas. Training accounts are also available at FXCM for 30 days. There are also two types of demo accounts: the standard demo account is available with $50,000 and the mini-demo account comes with $2000. The trading platform used on all these accounts is exactly the same. However, you do need a separate password and ID to access each one.
When it comes to trading platforms, FXCM offers the widely used MT4 platform. It is quite easy to navigate and can be customized to your individual preferences. The available assets to trade include day trading, trailing stop/limit orders and entry orders, and stop loss and take profit.
Customer support from FXCM is available 24/7 in over 20 languages inclusive of weekends and other days when the market is closed. As a trader, you can get in touch over the phone, through email or online chat.
3. Nadex
Nadex is part of the global financial services provider, IG which is worth over 2.2 billion pounds and based in Chicago.
It is a derivatives exchange regulated by the CFTC and only offers assets with limited risks. Its design is mostly in the interests of retail traders. Although, primarily a binary options broker, Nadex offers traders access to financial markets including Forex, commodities, stock indices and crypto currency bitcoins with over 2400 binary option contracts on a daily basis.
When it comes to accounts, traders can maintain just one completely free until they place their first trade.
To continue thereby would require an initial deposit of $250. Apart from that, the account must also hold enough capital to pay off any loss that may result from a trading position. Fortunately, a demo account is available with a handsome deposit of $25,000.
The contracts on offer at Nadex can last anywhere from 5 minutes to a week so traders have numerous trading options to consider as well as being able close off a position before its designated time of expiry.
Bonuses are available here as well. The offer from Nadex rather peculiar. Called the Free Holiday Bonus, it involves traders getting full days where they can trade without being charged with any exchange fees.
Nadex offers support to its customers via phone and email 24 hours a day starting from 6 pm on Sunday to 4:15 pm on Friday.
Pick One Of The Top Rated US Forex Brokers
These Forex brokers are currently some of the best ones operating in the United States as well as internationally. However, as a trader what is most important to consider when choosing which one to trade with is not their popularity so much as how well they can suit your trading style.