Leverage is the best trading tool and the most misunderstood. Many market participants, including professional ones and regulators, mistakenly associate it with high risk.
We have researched hundreds of brokers to find the best high leverage Forex brokers, which offer clients a competitive edge.
Top High Leverage Forex Brokers
- IFC Markets, 600+ Instruments, 0% deposits, free Autochartist signals .
- AvaTrade, Highly regulated, choice of fixed or floating spreads.
- BlackBull Markets, Best ECN trading environment, with scalping and hedging.
- Eightcap, Competitive pricing + excellent daily videos.
- FP Markets, ECN trading with leverage up to 1:500.
Best High Leverage Brokers Comparison
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Regulators | BVI, FSC Mauritius, LFSA | ASIC, BVI, Central Bank of Ireland, FFAJ, FSCA, KNF, MiFID | FMA, FSA | ASIC, CySEC, FCA, SCB | ASIC, CMA, CySEC, FSCA |
Year Established | 2006 | 2006 | 2014 | 2009 | 2005 |
Execution Type(s) | ECN/STP | Market Maker | ECN/STP, No Dealing Desk | ECN/STP, Market Maker | ECN/STP |
Minimum Deposit | |||||
Average Trading Cost EUR/USD | $4.00 | 0.9 pips | 1.3 pips | 1.0 pips | 1.2 pips |
Average Trading Cost GBP/USD | $24.00 | 1.5 pips | 2.0 pips | 1.2 pips | 1.4 pips |
Average Trading Cost Gold | $45.00 | $0.29 | $0.90 | $0.12 | $0.16 |
Trading Platform(s) | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, NetTradeX | Other, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Proprietary platform, Web-based+ | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, Trading View | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Trading View | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, Proprietary platform, Web-based |
Islamic Account | |||||
Negative Balance Protection | |||||
| Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website | Visit Website |
IFC Markets
In Summary 600+ Instruments, 0% deposits, free Autochartist signalsIFC Markets is a longstanding broker having been founded in 2006 and today has 165,000 clients from 80 countries. It operates with licenses under multiple jurisdictions including the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission, the Malaysia Labuan Financial Services Authority, and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.
IFC has a huge number of Forex pairs available to traders, and many other markets including precious metals, equity indexes, and individual stocks. IFC Markets now has over 600 instruments available to traders.
IFC Markets developed the cutting edge NetTradeX platform for its customers for instant execution and advanced market analytics. They even go so far as to provide a video tutorial on the platform so you can get up and running straight away. If you are more familiar with the highly popular MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms, IFC Markets also has those available for its customers who want to stay with the MetaTrader suite. All their platforms can be traded on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.
The company is very tech-focused having been awarded a US Patent for their Portfolio Quoting Method.
IFC Markets is best for its technological capabilities and it is best for a trader wanting a wide variety of instruments to trade.
Pros & Cons
- Excellent regulatory track record and secure trading environment
- Outstanding asset selection and patented PQM asset generation technology
- Extremely competitive commission-free trading cost structure
- Valuable research and educational section, low minimum deposit, and high leverage
- No direct support for social trading
AvaTrade
In Summary Highly regulated, choice of fixed or floating spreadsAvaTrade is one of the most regulated brokers and offers low leverage in several jurisdictions. The ASIC-regulated entity offers traders up to 1:400, still below the 1:500 most Australian brokers provide, but a very competitive one for traders to consider. AvaTrade presents new traders with a market-leading educational, SharpTrader, where more than 40 lessons and 200 videos await. It also maintains 24/7 customer support in 14 languages.
With more than 1,250 CFDs in a commission-free trading environment, traders can achieve cross-asset diversification with a slightly overpriced cost structure. AvaTrade offers its traders the core MT4/MT5 trading platforms and deploys its proprietary WebTrader, AvaOptions, and AvaTradeGO. Social traders can diversify their portfolios through DupliTrade, ZuluTrade, and MQL5 Signal Service.
Pros & Cons
- High quality educational offering via AvaAcademy
- Excellent choice of trading platforms catering to various trading needs
- Broad asset selection and cross-asset diversification opportunities
- Well-regulated and trusted broker with oversight from a central bank
- Trading costs competitive but nothing special
BlackBull Markets
In Summary Best ECN trading environment, with scalping and hedgingBlackBull Markets was founded in 2014 in New Zealand. Like many antipodean Forex brokers, BlackBull Markets is an ECN broker, offering raw spreads and commissions. They are regulated in New Zealand by the Financial Services Providers Register (FSPR) and offer a maximum leverage on some Forex currency pairs as high as 500 to 1. In addition to their global headquarters in New Zealand, BlackBull Markets also has presences in the form of branch offices in New York and Malaysia. BlackBull Markets offers a relatively tight range of tradable assets: 27 Forex currency pairs and crosses, gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas, and 6 major equity indices. That should be sufficient for those traders with more focused strategies not requiring wide diversification.
Pros & Cons
- ECN/NDD execution model with deep liquidity
- Institution-grade pricing for retail traders via proprietary price aggregation
- ZuluTrade and Myfxbook for social trading
- Leverage of up to 1:500
- Limited deposit options
Eightcap
In Summary Competitive pricing + excellent daily videosEightcap is another competitive Australian broker with leverage of 1:500 and outstanding technology infrastructure that ensures high-speed execution. It only offers a limited asset selection and fails to upgrade the out-of-the-box MT4/MT5 trading platforms. Traders with existing trading solutions and a focused trading strategy will benefit from the competitive ECN cost structure. Eightcap is ideal for scalpers and high-frequency traders, providing deep liquidity to traders. New traders have access to quality educational content, including a dedicated section on trading strategies. Eightcap additionally provides daily in-house research, its primary trading tool. Multilingual customer service and a transparent trading environment offer traders security, as Eightcap established a trustworthy relationship. While advanced trading features are non-existent, Eightcap focuses on the core trading environment and executes well in that category.
Pros & Cons
- Low minimum deposit and high leverage of up to 1:500
- Competitive cost structure
- Excellent technology infrastructure and seasoned management team
- Daily research and quality educational content
- Limited leverage in some areas
FP Markets
In Summary ECN trading with leverage up to 1:500fpmarkets is an ASIC-regulated Australian brokerage which launched in 2005. For most traders, the unique selling point of this broker is in the extremely wide range of tradable assets offered, providing the opportunity to trade over ten thousand individual stocks and shares including publicly quoted Hong Kong and Australian companies. Ffpmarkets also offers 60 Forex pairs and crosses, 11 equity indices, the major commodities, and 5 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin. fpmarkets offers an unusual hybrid ECN/STP execution model, meaning their clients can choose between ECN style of execution giving a very high level of speed, and a “straight through processing” execution style which allows for more “natural” spreads.
Pros & Cons
- Choice of trading platforms and auxiliary trading tools
- Very competitive cost structure and excellent asset selection
- Low minimum deposit requirement and leverage of up to 1:500
- Well-regulated and trustworthy
- Availability of Iress geographically restricted
What are Leverage and Margin in Forex Trading?
One of the most notable benefits of Forex trading is high leverage. The most competitive regulatory environments permit brokers to provide up to 1:500, with some boosting it to 1:2000. The EU limits leverageto 1:30 for retail traders, and the US and Canada cap it at 1:50.
Leverage in Forex trading refers to the amount a trader borrows from the broker to increase their position size. Margin is the amount of money a trader needs to pay to open a leveraged position. For example, if the margin requirement is 1%, and the trader wants to take a $10,000 trade, then the margin requirement for that trade is $100. A 1% margin requirement is equal to 1:100 leverage.
The incorrect assessment of confusing leverage with high risk, results in counterproductive limitations, ignoring the fact that the absence of risk management cause losses, not leveraged trading accounts. Trading with well-regulated Forex brokers with high leverage can offer traders an edge, and when used with effective risk management, it can also increase the profitability of trading strategies.
Trading with high leverage brokers will not impact potential trading losses but using it without risk management will. Leverage allows skilled traders to deploy sophisticated trading strategies, achieve asset diversification with smaller portfolios, and boost profitability, but only with well-executed risk management procedures.
Tips for Trading with Low Margin Rates
Trading with Forex brokers with low margin rates yields notable advantages but carries elevated risks unless traders take proper precautions. Low margin rates equal higher leverage, which magnifies the profit and loss potential, and traders must ensure that their broker offers negative balance protection.
Low-margin traders who follow the below tips can keep their risk equal to high margin trading while improving their profitability.
1. Risk management: Traders who accept a 3.0% loss per position on a $5,000 portfolio risk a maximum of $150. It does not matter if the margin rate is 0.5% or 100.0%. The number of pips a trade can move in a losing direction will become proportional to the applied margin rate. Lower margin trades will arrive at the stop loss level faster than higher margin trades.
2. Cash levels: Overtrading is a portfolio killer, and low-margin traders must ensure they maintain adequate cash levels. It also allows traders to take advantage of unexpected trading opportunities.
3. Diversification: Traders should avoid positions exposed to the same currency, as it increases risk and narrows profitability. A well-diversified and balanced portfolio is the primary advantage of trading with Forex brokers with lowest margin rates.
Using a Broker's Leverage - Pros & Cons:
Before deciding on a leveraged account, traders should consider the pros and cons of using Forex brokers with high leverage.
The Pros of Using High Leverage Forex Brokers
High leverage allows traders with smaller portfolios to diversify their trades.
It provides a boost to the profit, but also the loss potential of a trading account.
Traders can deploy advanced and sophisticated trading strategies with less capital.
High leverage provides more freedom and flexibility.
Skilled traders can achieve their trading goals from a lower capital base.
The Cons of Using High Leverage Forex Brokers
Unskilled traders can lose their entire deposits.
Swap rates eat into the cash balance if traders keep positions open for too long.
New traders fail to implement risk management and engage in reckless trading.
Leveraged trading requires skill, knowledge, discipline, and the execution of strict risk management.
Most traders use high leverage in underfunded trading accounts and spike their risk profile.
What to Look for in a High Leverage Forex Broker
Forex brokers regulated in the USA, the European Union, or Canada cannot offer high leverage to residents of these areas. Most traders resident in other countries have the freedom to select among dozens of excellent brokers with competitive trading environments. I recommend traders consider the below aspects when narrowing their choices:
Regulation - Forex traders should always trade with regulated Forex brokers featuring a spotless regulatory record spanning 10+ years, but not all regulators have competitive trading conditions. The FSCA, the BVIFSA, the FSC, the IFSC, the DFSA, and the CIMA established themselves among the best regulators for Forex traders and brokers, offering a superb combination of regulatory security, trustworthiness, and competitiveness.
Margin Requirements - Traders must focus on brokers with low margin requirements to take full advantage of leveraged trading accounts. Anything at or below 1% for liquid assets represents an excellent and competitive offer.
Fees & Commissions - High leverage should never remain the sole aspect of the trading environment. A trader-friendly cost structure is more defining for a quality broker. Active traders should look for an ECN account, raw spreads, and commission of no more than $7 per round lot. A volume-based cashback program will lower the final trading costs.
Support for Trading Software - Most profitable traders use sophisticated automated trading solutions developed on the MT4 or cTrader infrastructure. Some operate from within the trading platform, while others require an API to communicate with MT4 or cTrader. Brokers with proprietary trading platforms must offer an API to allow traders to connect their trading software to the order execution service.
Account & Trade Minimums - Capital requirements to open an account differ, and some brokers require no minimum. I recommend choosing a broker with a low minimum and access to all trading features. It will allow traders to implement a deposit strategy to grow their portfolio that suits their circumstances. Traders should also ensure that the minimum transaction size is 0.01 lots.
How to Open a High Leverage Brokerage Account?
- Draw up a shortlist of the best high leverage Forex brokers which will accept you as a client. Don’t forget that if you live in the EU, the USA, or Canada, most Forex brokers will not offer you higher leverage than 30 to 1 or 50 to 1 on major Forex pairs.
- Check the maximum leverage each broker will offer you, which will depend upon your country of residence, and remove any brokers which will not offer you the leverage amount you want.
- Compare the remaining brokers other attributes, with the two most important being regulation and fees. You can probably narrow down your shortlist much more after this step to just one or two potential brokers.
- Consider narrowing down your list even more by evaluating nice-to-have features such as trading platforms etc.
- Open demo accounts with your remaining shortlisted brokers, and after a few weeks of paper trading you will likely have seen enough to know whether you will feel comfortable opening an account there with real money.
- Finally, open a real money account by following the account opening instructions at the high leverage Forex broker(s) of your choice.
Where to Find the Highest Leverage in Forex Trading
Forex traders can find the highest leverage with well-regulated offshore Forex brokers. Forex brokers regulated by the FSCA, the BVIFSA, the FSC, the IFSC, the DFSA, and the CIMA offer an excellent choice of regulatory security, trustworthiness, and competitiveness. Other offshore regulators also provide competitive Forex leverage, but regulators are less established, and Forex traders must evaluate Forex brokers on a case-by-case basis. New Zealand is the only tier-1 regulator that offers competitive Forex leverage of up to 1:500 for major currency pairs for retail Forex traders.
Is Leverage Trading Halal
Leverage trading is halal if Islamic traders use a swap-free Islamic trading account, as available at the best Forex brokers. It neither levies nor grants overnight financing rates. Many Forex brokers with Islamic accounts substitute the lack of swap rates with fixed fees, higher spreads, time limits before extra costs apply, or other restrictions, which may create unfair trading conditions. Therefore, I advise Islamic Forex to read and understand the conditions of Islamic accounts, compare them to non-Islamic accounts, and evaluate their fairness.
How Does Leverage Impact Your Trading?
Leverage decreases the margin requirement traders have to pay to open and maintain positions.
Using leverage can impact your trading in the following ways:
- Ability to trade higher position sizes, which requires adjustments to risk management to ensure higher leverage does not increase risk
- Ability to trade more assets without raising capital, which requires adjustments to reserve assets and potentially position sizes
Noteworthy:
- Most traders increase position sizes without adjusting risk management parameters, increasing risk and risking the total loss of capital, which creates the myth that higher leverage increases risk, while it relates to user error and leverage
Leverage Trading for Beginners
Leverage depends on the trader’s risk appetite, but anything less than maximum creates a disadvantage. Before beginners use leverage, they must master the relationship between leverage and risk management, as the absence of risk management increases risk, not the usage of higher leverage. It remains one of the most misunderstood and communicated misconceptions of leverage, enforced by all tier-1 regulators except New Zealand.
Below are my tips for preventing errors with leveraged trading:
- Understand the risk management-leverage relationship
- Trade with sufficient capital to have enough reserve assets to counter unexpected developments, including avoiding margin calls
- Trade appropriate lot sizes for your portfolio as leveraged traders must understand the lot sizes they can trade to remain within risk management parameters
- Never chase losses and stick to the risk management parameters you have created before taking the position
- Avoid leveraged overnight positions, as they increase trading fees and risk
How Does Leverage Affect CFD Trading
CFD traders will pay a smaller margin requirement with higher leverage. Therefore, they can either trade higher volumes or trade more assets. The former requires an adjustment to risk management, as higher volumes mean the distance of a trade moving against a trader to maintain acceptable risk levels decreases. The latter involves adjustment to reserve assets and trading volume to deploy risk management that keeps risk acceptable.
Failing to adjust risk management settings with higher leverage, higher volumes, or more positions increases risk and can cause traders to lose capital. It is the core cause of the misconception that leverage increases risk. I cannot stress enough that the absence of risk management or inappropriate risk management setting relates to risk and not leverage.
How to Trade Gold with Leverage
Trading gold with leverage is identical to trading any leveraged asset. Before taking a leveraged gold position, traders must comprehend the relationship between risk management and leverage. They must also understand how lot sizes impact risk management and how to deploy appropriate risk management.
Risk management defines your maximum loss. For example, if you have a $5,000 portfolio and set a maximum acceptable loss of 2% or $100, leverage of 1:1 or 1:unlimited does not alter the 2%. It decreases the margin requirement to open and maintain the position, which allows traders to trade higher volumes. Regrettably, traders often fail to adjust their risk management, which causes heavy losses. It is due to the absence of appropriate risk management, not leverage.
How to Avoid Forex and CFD Scams?
Online trading continues to evolve positively in most areas, revolutionizing the retail financial market. The demand and growth have also encouraged scammers to get involved.
Here are my tips on avoiding Forex and CFD scams:
- Understand markets, realize what they represent, and spot scams by investing in in-depth education
- Irrelevant to how good their offer sounds, never trade with unregulated brokers
- Legit brokers will never call you, while scam brokers call under the guise of helping beginners trade, which is a red flag
- Scammers use social media to advertise fake live portfolio screenshots with linear portfolio growth or high success rates with the occasional loss with outsized returns, usually in groups, forums, channels, and direct messaging, and, therefore, ignore social media
- Never pay for trading bots, as they only enrich sellers while failing long-term
- Avoid paid-for
- Avoid paying for educational courses, mentors, and trading coaches, as most are from failed traders who recover losses by selling useless products and services
- Ignore anything that promises quick profits from small deposits with no knowledge needed
- Remember that professional Forex traders average less than 12% annual profits consistently with few exceptions
- Consider that the majority of successful Forex traders do not share their strategies, use copy trading, or offer private lessons
Bottom Line
Trading with one of the high leverage Forex brokers does not only make sense but remains a requirement for committed Forex traders seeking to trade for a living. It does require tremendous skill, knowledge, and experience. Traders must also understand the necessity of risk management. While between 70% to 85% of traders lose money, which has nothing to do with leveraged trading accounts, those who master this trading tool can join those who earn consistent profits. As always, education and patience remain paramount to use leverage effectively.
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