FP Markets Review: A Great Broker… If You’re Willing To Commit

Fees	9
Signup Process	9
Minimum Deposit	10
Ease of Use	8
Deposit & Withdrawal Options	10
Customer Support	10
Asset Classes	8
Referral Program	2
Demo Account & Educational Resources	9
Safety & Regulation	10
Total	85

Looking for a new, or worse, your first broker is never an easy choice among beginner or expert traders. There are so many things to have in mind, commissions, spreads, available assets and tons of other minute but important details. For that same reason here at Yore Oyster, we’ve given ourselves the responsibility of reviewing the biggest and most famous brokers out there and truly crown the best brokers in the industry. So, continuing our series of reviews, let’s dive into one of Australia’s most interesting brokers, FP Markets.

An Introduction to FP Markets

First Prudential Markets, better known as FP Markets is an Australian CFD (Contracts For Difference) and Forex broker that was founded back in 2005. The broker had some humble beginnings since it got its trading license by the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investing Commission), but in the course of 15 years, it’s become quite the institution on its own. In 2018 it also got a trading license from the CySEC (Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission) as well and now it’s available in most major countries except the United States.

Since then, the broker has gotten several awards, including the Best Global Forex Value Broker Award in the Global Forex Awards held in Limassol, Cyprus in 2019. The broker is also known for its great customer service, tight spreads and one of the fastest order execution times in the market, which makes it a renowned institution all over the world.

We’ve already mentioned that FP Markets is available in most major countries, but we always prefer not to leave doubts, so here are all the countries where FP Markets is available:

Alan Islands	Albania	Algeria	Andorra	Angola	Anguilla	Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda	Argentina	Armenia	Aruba	Australia	Austria	Azerbaijan
Bahrain	Bangladesh	Barbados	Belarus	Belize	Benin	Bermuda
Bhutan	Bolivia	Bonaire	Bouvet Island	Brazil	British Indian Ocean Territory	Brunei
Bulgaria	Burkina Faso	Burundi	Cameroon	Canada	Cape Verde	Cayman Islands
Chad	Chile	China	Christmas Island	Cocos (Keeling) Islands	Colombia	Comoros
Cook Islands	Costa Rica	Croatia	Cuba	Curaçao	Cyprus	Czech Republic
Denmark	Djibouti	Dominica	Dominican Republic	Ecuador	Egypt	El Salvador
Estonia	Eswatini	Falkland Islands	Faroe Islands	Fiji	Finland	France
French Guiana	French Polynesia	French Southern Territories	Gabon	Gambia	Georgia	Germany
Gibraltar	Greece	Greenland	Grenada	Guadeloupe	Guatemala	Guernsey
Guinea	Haiti	Honduras	Hong Kong	Hungary	Iceland	India
Indonesia	Ireland	Isle of Man	Israel	Italy	Jamaica	Jersey
Jordan	Kenya	Kiribati	South Korea	Kuwait	Kyrgyzstan	Latvia
Lesotho	Liechtenstein	Lithuania	Luxembourg	Macau	Madagascar	Malawi
Malaysia	Maldives	Malta	Marshall Islands	Martinique	Mauritania	Mauritius
Mayotte	Mexico	Micronesia	Moldova	Monaco	Mongolia	Montenegro
Montserrat	Morocco	Mozambique	Namibia	Nauru	Nepal	Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles	New Caledonia	Nicaragua	Niger	Nigeria	Niue	Norfolk Island
North Macedonia	Northern Mariana Islands	Norway	Oman	Palau	Panama	Papua New Guinea
Paraguay	Peru	Phillippines	Pitcairn	Poland	Portugal	Qatar
Reunion	Romania	Russian Federation	Rwanda	Saint Barthélemy	Saint Helena	Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia	Saint Martin (French part)	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Samoa	San Marino	Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia	Senegal	Serbia	Seychelles	Sierra Leone	Singapore	Saint Maarten (Dutch part)
Slovakia	Slovenia	Solomon Islands	South Africa	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	Spain	Suriname
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands	Sweden	Switzerland	Taiwan	Tajikistan	Tanzania	Thailand
Timor-Leste	Togo	Tokelau	Tonga	Turkey	Turkmenistan	Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu	Ukraine	United Araba Emirates	United Kingdom	Uruguay	Uzbekistan	Venezuela
Viet Nam	Virgin Islands (British)	Wallis and Futuna Islands	Western Sahara	Zambia

As you can see, the most notable country that doesn’t appear on this list is the United States. This is probably due to law regulations on CFDs in the country, but aside from that, FP Markets is available almost everywhere! So, with that said, let’s get into this review.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Commissions are incorporated into spreads
• Multiple ranges of accounts to choose from according to your needs
• Low minimum initial deposit requirement
• 24/5 Customer support
• Access to 8,000+ share CFDs including standalone shares and indices
• A relatively varied repertoire of assets
• Available in most major and minor countries except the US.

Cons

• Has withdrawal fees of 1% to 2% depending on the method you choose
• Approximately, 8,000+ shares are locked behind Iress accounts with a $1,000 deposit
• No 24/7 support
• Iress accounts come with service fees on top of commissions incorporated into spreads
• Not opting for an Iress account leaves you with MetaTrader as your only platform and only 60 shares available for trading aside from other instruments.
• Not available in the US.
• Referral rewards require your friends to deposit $500+ when funding their accounts

FP Markets Account Types

The first unique and interesting feature that shines from FP Markets is its account repertoire. You see, the broker offers 5 types of accounts in total, but some work somewhat differently than the others. These separate in 2 groups, the regular accounts and the Iress accounts, so let’s see what they’re all about:

Regular Accounts

We call these 2 accounts “regular” because they’re the most similar to what other brokers also offer. Here you’ll find 2 types of accounts, which are:

• Standard account
• Raw account

Here’s a table comparing both accounts commissions’ on each instrument that’s offered on the broker.

INSTRUMENT	Standard Account	Raw Account
Forex	$0 (Added to Spreads)	3.50 (AUD, CAD, SGD), 3 USD, 2.75 EUR, 2.25 GBP, 20 HKD, 250 JPY*
Metals	$0 (Added to Spreads)	3.50 (AUD, CAD, SGD), 3 USD, 2.75 EUR, 2.25 GBP, 20 HKD, 250 JPY*
Commodities	$0 (Added to Spreads)	$0 (Added to Spreads)
Indices	$0 (Added to Spreads)	$0 (Added to Spreads)
Cryptocurrency	$0 (Added to Spreads)	$0 (Added to Spreads)

It’s worth noting that the commissions on the raw account are charged per side, which means a $7 AUD trade commission per round turn.

As you can see, the Standard account has trading commissions incorporated into spreads, while instead, the raw account has a fixed commission that will save you money in the long run with lowered spread prices. Both accounts have access to the MT4/MT5 terminal with all custom resources, indicators, a $100 minimum initial deposit and everything else the broker offers.

Aside from that, the broker also offers Islamic versions of these accounts, which have the same features except for having free swaps due to Sharia Law requirements. However, Iress accounts work very differently to all types of accounts we have mentioned so far, let’s take a look.

Iress Accounts

The first and most noticeable difference between the Iress and the regular accounts is that Iress traders get access to an exclusive trading platform aside from MetaTrader. This platform is called Iress and it’s exclusive to FP Markets, being available on desktop, mobile and web. Aside from that, Iress accounts are subject to three types of fees which are:

• Brokerage Rate
• Financing Fee
• Iress trader and fee

However, these fees do vary from account to account type. Now, Iress is offered through 3 account types, which are:

• Standard
• Platinum
• Premier

Here’s a table depicting the fee differences between each Iress account:

Iress Accounts comparison	Iress Standard	Iress Platinum	Iress Premier
Minimum Initial deposit	$1,000	$25,000	$50,000
Brokerage rate	$10 min, then 0.1%	$9 min, then 0.09%	No min, then 0.08%
Financing fee	FP Markets Base Rate + 4%	FP Markets Base Rate + 3.5%	Waived
Iress Trader and Fee	$55 but waived if you generate $150 in commissions per month	$55 but waived if you generate $150 in commissions per month	Free

Another thing to note is that Iress accounts get much wider access to FP Markets’ asset repertoire. This mostly includes a huge variety of both international, national CFD Australian stocks, reaching over 8,000+ shares if you also count indices as well. But aside from that, that’s where differences end. So, which account should you go for?

If you’re a casual trader who’s just taking your first steps, we recommend the regular standard account. However, if you’re a casual trader with some experience under your belt and you know what you’re doing, the Raw account will let you save some cash with its fixed commissions and raw spreads. 

However, when it comes to Iress accounts, it’s really hard to recommend one over the other thanks to the minimum initial deposit requirements. If you’re an experienced trader who’s interested in FP Markets, you should get the Iress account which you can open. However, if we really had to recommend one, we’d say the Premier account since it’s the one that will save you the most in the long run.

That said, let’s get into the actual meat of this review!

#1 FP Markets Fees

As we had hinted earlier FP Markets is a $0 commission broker for the most part. This doesn’t apply to the very specific case where you’re on a raw account and you’re trading either Forex or metals, where you will incur a $3.5 AUD surcharge per side. But aside from that, FP Markets incorporates fees into spread prices while still maintaining them fairly tight, which is quite a feat.

FP Markets also doesn’t have deposit nor inactivity fees, but it does have a withdrawal fee in most cases. This fee can change somewhat depending on the withdrawal method you’re using. Let’s take a look at the following table:

Withdrawal medium	Fee
Credit/Debit Card	No Fees
Domestic Bank Wire	No Fees
International Bank Wire	$10 AUD
Neteller	2% or a max of $30 AUD
Skrill	1% + country fees if applicable
FasaPay	0.50%
PayTrust 88	1.50%
NganLuong.vn	$1,000 VND + 1%
PayPal	No Fees

As you can see, credit and debit cards, domestic bank transfers and PayPal withdrawals have no fee whatsoever. But aside from that, there are no other fees that the broker charges unless you’re using an Iress account, which was already mentioned before.

Just to give you insight, here’s a table also depicting the average spread prices for each instrument class in both regular accounts:

Average Spread Prices (Pips)	Standard	Raw
Forex	91.8289	80.7311
Commodities	0.1929	0.1529
Indices	3.5033	3.5033
Cryptocurrencies	4.1242	4.1242

As you can see, the spread prices vary somewhat slightly, with the added benefit that the Raw account can have spreads from 0.0 pips, but this does not mean that spreads will always go for free. It’s also worth noting that the broker does not list stock’s spread prices, only the margin available, which we’ll get into now.

If a broker offers CFDs then margin and leverage are to be expected. FP Markets is very clear with its use of these tools and has a handy table depicting the maximum leverage you can apply to most trades and products:

PRODUCT	MAXIMUM LEVERAGE
FX	9:20
PRECIOUS METAL	9:20
INDEX (EXCLUDING CHINA50)	2:40
OIL	2:40
CHINA50	1:50
BITCOIN	1:2

The best thing about this, however, is that there is no fee for using leverage, but it is up to the trader to discern its own risk in this situation.

So, in general terms, the broker does a great job with its fees, not charging too much nor hiding any charges in its fine print. So, it gets a solid score in this category.

FP Markets Fees Score: 9/10

#2 Signup Process

As we always say, it doesn’t matter if a broker has the best fees, all the assets and all the benefits out there if you can’t create an account in an instant. Luckily for us and anyone who wants to use FP Markets, the broker has a fairly quick account creation process.

As of the moment we used this broker, the whole account creation process and having it verified lasted no more than 12 hours. We’ve compared our experience with other’s who use FP Markets as well and the verifying process usually takes a single business day from an average standpoint. Although, some accounts are usually verified faster than others, and it’s subject to the analysis and verification process of each user who wants to open an account.

It’s also worth noting that the process is fully digital, letting users send all their documents through email. The first form you have to fill with your information won’t take more than 3 minutes away from your time, so from an overall standpoint, we have a really simple and quick sign up process that can be filled anytime, anywhere. Excellent performance of the broker in this category as well!

FP Markets Signup Process Score: 9/10

#3 FP Markets Minimum Initial Deposit: Accessible, But Expensive At The Same Time

Here’s another good aspect of FP Markets since the broker doesn’t have a high minimum initial deposit for any of the non-Iress accounts. All 4 accounts, Standard, Raw and its Islamic counterparts have a $100 AUD or equivalent minimum initial deposit. We would congratulate FP Markets if all of its accounts had this minimum initial deposit, but sadly, Iress accounts lock some features behind their hefty deposit requirements.

As we had mentioned, the Iress accounts have a bigger minimum initial deposit requirement. Sure thing, the $100 minimum deposit for the MT4/5 accounts is a pretty sweet deal, but we can’t deny that the real juice of this broker lays behind the Iress minimum initial deposit requirement, which limits the market exposure an average user can have.

Here’s a table comparing both regular and Iress account’s minimum initial deposit with other similar brokers:

Broker	Minimum Deposit
Interactive Brokers	$0.00
Exness	$1.00
Capital.com	$20.00
FP Markets (MT4/5)	$100.00
Pepperstone	$200.00
Swissquote	$500.00
FP Markets (Iress)	$1,000.00

It’s sad to admit that what really makes FP Markets stand out is locked behind a $1,000 deposit requirement when other brokers like Capital.com have their unique proprietary platforms available only for a $20 deposit.

Either way, that’s not the only option when it comes to opening an account with FP Markets, so it’s not that big of a deal. Solid development from the broker in this scenario, even if its most unique features might not be available to everyone.

FP Markets Minimum Initial Deposit Score: 10/10

#4 FP Markets Ease of Use

This is a difficult category to talk about because FP Markets has 2 main ways in which it can be used, MetaTrader and Iress. The thing is, FP Markets is not the first broker to use MetaTrader 4 and 5 out there, so we already know how it works. What really interested us here was Iress, but due to its rather high minimum initial deposit, we decided to opt for a raw account in the first place. However, we’re still going to talk about both platforms, even if MetaTrader is what most traders will end up with.

MetaTrader 4/5 Ease Of Use

As we’ve said many times, MetaTrader 4 and 5 work excellently, being probably one of the most well-known platforms in the scene. This software is particularly handy for being one of the best when it comes to Forex and stock trading. However, MetaTrader falls short in terms of how it actually feels to trade in it. The software has one of the simplest but also busiest UIs out there, but on top of that, it also has a ton of customizability in indicators and charting that might end up confusing first-timers. From a utility perspective MetaTrader is awesome, but from a design and visual flair one, it’s lacklustre.

The version that usually gets the furthest away from these drawbacks is the mobile one, which in turn has to be simplified due to the device it must be used on. This version also has a 4.6/5 score on both Google and Apple stores, so it’s safe to say that it’s well-received by the community.

But aside from that, MetaTrader is mostly a tool that experienced traders won’t have any problems with, but something that beginners might have a lot of confusion with.

Iress Trading Platform

The first thing that we have to clear here is that we haven’t used Iress at all and all of our comments are based on assumptions due to not being able to open an Iress account by ourselves. However, we would like to still talk about the platform due to the uniqueness it brings to the broker in the first place.

What’s most noticeable out of Iress, or at least visually, is that it bears simple yet understandable UI. Iress utilizes its colour pallete in a very subtle but smart way, letting traders know immediately what they’re looking at.

But overall, the biggest feature Iress can boast about is its customizability. The broker offers over 50 drawing options with 59 technical indicators to grant a bigger analysis on the market. On top of that it’s available on most major platforms and it sincronyzes on all of them, making the whole experience a seamless process.

However, that’s as much as we’d like to talk about it since we haven’t had the chance to actually use it.

Overall, even if MetaTrader is not the easiest app to look at, it works really well and we can’t deny that. For that same reason, the broker gets a solid score in this category. However, due to the Iress platform, arguably the better one, not being more readily available we can’t really give it a perfect score.

FP Markets Ease of Use Score: 8/10

#5 Deposit & Withdrawal Options

Here’s another category where the broker performs excellently. Even though FP Markets is in Australia, it accepts both deposits and withdrawals from most major sources. Here are all the methods that the broker supports for both deposits and withdrawals:

• Debit and Credit Cards
• Bank Transfers (ACH)
• Electronic Wallets (PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, FasaPay and NganLuong.vn)
• ACAT Transfers (Broker to Broker)
• Wire Transfers

As you can see, most of the actual methods used for depositing cash into a broker are available here, even ACAT transfers, which are quite the rare sight to behold. It’s also important to mention that deposits are free of fees and they’re also usually credited instantly into the broker while some other methods tend to take 1 business day. Here’s where it’s best to mention that FP Markets supports the following base currencies:

• AUD
• USD
• EUR
• GBP
• SGD
• HKD
• JPY
•  NZD
• CHF
• CAD

However, when it comes to withdrawals, things start to differ since these do actually have a fee in most cases. Here’s a table depicting the fees and time taken for the withdrawal to go through.

Withdrawal medium	Fee	Withdrawal duration
Credit/Debit Card	No Fees	1 Business Day
Domestic Bank Wire	No Fees	1 Business Day (If all documents needed are correct)
International Bank Wire	$10 AUD	1 Business Day (If all documents needed are correct)
Neteller	2% or a max of $30 AUD	1 Business Day
Skrill	1% + country fees if applicable	1 Business Day
FasaPay	0.50%	1 Business Day
PayTrust 88	1.50%	1 Business Day
NganLuong.vn	$1,000 VND + 1%	1 Business Day
PayPal	No Fees	1 Business Day

The most notable thing to point out here is that credit and debit cards, domestic bank wires and PayPal withdrawals aren’t subject to any withdrawal fees whatsoever. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the broker has absolute record speeds in terms of withdrawal times. We haven’t seen a broker that offers those times for all of its deposit/withdrawals methods in its repertoire, so it really amazed us.

Overall, one of the categories where FP Markets stands out the most, so it gets a perfect score for the sheer number of withdrawal/deposit methods it offers and the surprising speed of these.

FP Markets Deposit & Withdrawal Options Score: 10/10

#6 FP Markets Customer Support

While writing the first drafts of this FP Markets review, we came across the fact that even though the broker is headquartered in Australia, it has great customer service. However, even though it offers phone support in 13+ languages, it does so in a 24/5 manner, which is okay, to say the least.

You can find FP Markets’ customer service through their 3 main ways of communication, phone, live chat and email. Here are all the ways you can contact them:

• email: Supportteam@fpmarkets.com
• Phone: +44 28 2544 7780

And their regular office hours include:

• Monday to Saturday AEDT (24h)
• Sunday to Friday GMT (24h)

It’s also worth mentioning that technically, they support all languages through live chat thanks to a special proprietary translation system they developed, so that’s always a plus! And not only that, every user has access to a dedicated account manager that has access to the same translating system, so everyone gets a manager without having to learn another language, awesome!

This is another category where FP Markets has both a creative and excellent performance from a customer perspective. However, we certainly liked it if the broker managed to offer 24/7 customer support instead of only 24/5. But either way, a solid performance!

FP Markets Customer Support Score: 10/10

#7 Asset Classes

Here’s where things could get somewhat controversial even though FP Markets does a great job in offering a varied asset repertoire. This is thanks to the MT4/5 and Iress accounts being a different thing altogether. You see, Iress accounts are subject to fees and a bigger minimum initial deposit, but what they get in favour of that is absolutely worth it. These accounts get access to a whole lot of both international and Australian stocks and indices that the regular accounts don’t have. Here’s a table depicting the differences in asset availability:

Instrument	MT4/5 Accounts	Iress Accounts
Stocks	60	8,884
Indices	12	20
Forex	61	61
Commodities	7	7
Cryptocurrencies	5	5
Total:	145	8,977

As you can see, there’s a pretty abysmal difference when it comes to the total amount of assets offered from regular to Iress accounts. This is mainly due to stocks and indices, but we’ll cover the main differences as we start breaking down each asset:

FP Markets Stocks & Indices

As you can see, the main difference in the repertoire of assets is due to Iress users having a lot more stocks at their disposal. This feature is like a double-edged sword because traders that can’t apply for an Iress account will feel overly limited, even if they don’t focus on stock trading.

Since indices and stock trading are the categories where both types of account differentiate, we’ll compare them both in the following sections:

Regular Accounts Stocks & Indices

As we’ve mentioned, these accounts really get the short end of the stick in this category. Even though the available amount of stocks is low, FP Markets manages to offer a somewhat varied range of them, including the following stocks exchanges:

Stock Exchange	Shares
London	8
NASDAQ GS	16
New York	24
XETRA	12

A total of 60 shares is not something to boast about, but having access to 4 different stock exchanges is, so that’s what kind of salvages this category for the regular account users.

Now, when it comes to indices, things are not so clear, so to speak. The regular amount of indices that users get access to is a total of 12, which include the following products:

• Australia 200 index Cash
• US 30 Index Cash
• Euro 50 Index Cash
• CAC40 (France) Index Cash
• German 30 Index Cash
• Hang Seng Index Cash
• Japan 225 Index Cash
• US 500 Index Cash
• UK100 Index Cash
• US Tech 100 Index Cash
• China A50 Index Cash
• Singapore 30 Index Cash

This amounts to almost 10 countries’ assets which you wouldn’t normally have access to. And contrary to Iress stocks, their indices are not at all that important, but before we start jumping to conclusions, let’s see how Iress stocks and indices actually compare:

Iress Accounts Stocks & Indices

Not only do Iress accounts have a broader number of stocks, they also have access to a broader range of stock exchanges. Regular accounts only have access to 4 different stock exchanges while Iress traders get access to 9 stock exchanges in total, all of which are included here:

Stock Exchange	Number of Shares
ASX (Australian Securities Exchange)	2,829
AXW	102
NASDAQ	1,380
NYSE (New York Stock Exchange)	1,524
ARC	198
LSE (London Stock Exchange)	972
HKE (Hong Kong Exhange)	1,418
SGX (Singapore Exchange)	438
IDX (Indonesian Stock Exchange)	23
Total	8,884

The sheer amount of stock variety we see here is absolutely the most amount of stocks we’ve seen a broker offer in all of our reviews. Here’s a list of all the available indices for Iress accounts:

• Australia 200 index Cash
• US 30 Index Cash
• Euro 50 Index Cash
• CAC40 (France) Index Cash
• German 30 Index Cash
• Hang Seng Index Cash
• Japan 225 Index Cash
• US 500 Index Cash
• UK100 Index Cash
• US Tech 100 Index Cash
• China A50 Index Cash
• Singapore 30 Index Cash
• NASDAQ 100 E-Mini
• Nikkei 225 (CME)
• S&P 500 E-Mini
• DJIA E-Mini (CBOT)
• DAX Index
• EURO Stoxx 50
• Mini SPI 200
• SPI 200

Not only do Iress traders get access to all indices that regular accounts have, but they also get 8 more unique indices like the Euro Stoxx 50 and the DAX Index, which are internationally renowned.

However, these are all the differences between Iress and regular accounts in FP markets in terms of its assets, so, there’s no reason to keep comparing both account types in the following breakdown of the rest of the assets.

FP Markets Currency Pairs

 FP Markets is mainly a Forex broker more than anything else, which is why it has a wide array of currency pairs available. There’s a total of 61 Forex pairs which include major, minor and exotic pairs. Some of these include:

• AUD/CAD
• AUD/CHF
• AUD/JPY
• EUR/AUD
• EUR/CAD
• EUR/CHF
• GBP/MXN
• GBP/NZD
• GBP/PLN

Overall, a really varied repertoire of currency pairs fit for a broker with a focus on Forex, something that complements the utility of both MetaTrader 4 and 5.

Gold & Commodities

In terms of commodities, FP Markets offers just enough. This is clearly not the focus of the broker but it recognizes that some variety is welcomed. In total, this broker offers 7 commodities, including oil and precious metals. Here’s a full list of the commodities available to give you a bit more insight:

• Gold vs US Dollar (XAUUSD)
• Gold vs Australian Dollar (XAUAUD)
• Silver vs US Dollar (XAGUSD)
• Silver vs Australian Dollar (XAGAUD)
• West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil (WTI)
• West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Cash (XTIUSD)
• Brent Crude Oil Cash (XBRUSD)

It’s good enough, but some more variety would be more appreciated.

Bonds & ETFs

Apparently, FP Markets thought that offering 8,000+ stocks was enough to satisfy most users’ needs, but sadly, that’s not the truth. Some traders simply like looking for those hard to find assets like Bonds and ETFs, but sadly, these are nowhere to be found in FP Markets.

Crypto

The same scenario that we saw with commodities repeats itself in this category as well. FP Markets offers just enough cryptocurrencies to appease any trader that might be looking for those, but nothing out of the ordinary with the way they do it. The full list of cryptocurrency assets available for trading are the following:

• Bitcoin CFD (BTC/USD)
• Bitcoin Cash CFD (BCH/USD)
• Ethereum CFD (ETH/USD)
• Litecoin CFD (LTC/USD)
• Ripple CFD (XRP/USD)

Overall, FP Markets offers the biggest collection of tradable shares we’ve ever seen so far, including indices, but in terms of all other assets available except Forex, they fall a bit short. The biggest things to note here are that bond and ETFs are missing, commodity and crypto availability are relatively short and the fact that there are no Canadian indices whatsoever.

The broker doesn’t perform badly at all in this category, but it’s also not perfect and it might be overcompensating for its lack of instruments with just a bunch of shares. Either way, can’t deny that FP Markets being the broker with the biggest collection of shares we’ve seen so far is pretty neat!

FP Markets Asset Classes Score: 8/10

#8 Referral Program

Surprisingly, FP Markets has a referral program, which is something that isn’t that commonly seen in the industry. However, FP Markets treats its referral program in its own Iress way by dividing how it works for both regular and Iress accounts, so another comparison is in the way!

MetaTrader 4/5 Referral Bonus

The system works in its most standard way, if you refer a friend to FP Markets and they create a MetaTrader account you will receive a bonus credited to your account. However, this bonus will only be credited if your friend funds his or her account with $500 AUD or more and closes his or her first 10 trades. The interesting thing is that depending on the minimum initial deposit your friend makes, you’ll get varying monetary bonuses. Here’s a table where the system explains on its own:

Initial Deposit	Bonus
$500-$999	$50
$1000 – $2499	$100
$2500 – $9999	$200
$10,000+	$300

As you can see, according to your friend’s minimum initial deposit, your bonus reward will change. However, we think that these are nowhere near rewarding enough for the deposit requirement that the broker asks for. Asking a friend to jump to a new broker with you, let alone, depositing $500, $1,000 or more for just an extra $50 or $100 is just not worth it. Now let’s see how Iress’ referral bonus stacks up:

Iress Referral Bonus

This referral program is a lot simpler than the MetaTrader one. The process simply requires your friend to create an Iress account (minimum $1,000) and place its first trade. What really changes here is that both you and your friend benefit from a $100 bonus at the same time. So, even though a $1,000 deposit is a hefty sum, both you and your friend get rewarded for it, which is a better incentive.

However, referring friends isn’t always an easy thing and it’s much harder to make one of those friends deposit more than $1,000 on a broker they may not know. So, assuming that most if not all friends you’re going to refer are going to deposit $1,000 or less, all you get are either $50 or $100, which is not that great. Overall weak performance in this category.

Instead, if a referral program is one of the main things you’re looking for in a broker, then Tickmill and Interactive Brokers should be interesting reads for you.

FP Markets Referral Program Score: 2/10

#9 FP Markets Demo Account & Educational Resources

Here’s where we get to an interesting category due to the fact that if brokers want to onboard new traders, they also need to offer the tools for them to learn. We firmly believe that FP Markets does a great job in this category with a semi-infinite demo account and a lot of educational resources overall. Let’s delve into both categories bit by bit:

Demo Account

The broker offers the chance for every interested trader to create a demo account, that being on both MetaTrader and Iress platforms. This is fairly interesting to note because most brokers that use MetaTrader offer a demo account, but FP Markets manages to do this with the Iress platform as well.

The demo account works in the same way for both trading platforms, it’s free and it’s available as long as you use it in the last 30 days. If the demo account has a period of inactivity longer than the one mentioned, it will be automatically closed. So, if you keep using your demo account regularly, you won’t ever have to worry about it closing on its own, and either way, if that came to happen, opening a new one isn’t a hassle.

Another thing worthy of mentioning is that using your demo account doesn’t need you to verify your identity, you just need to sign up and download MetaTrader or Iress’ platforms.

Educational Resources

Here’s one of the most critical categories we score a broker on, why? Because if a broker doesn’t have good resources for beginner traders, it instantly turns them away, whether it likes it or not. Luckily for everyone out there who still doesn’t have a full grasp on trading, FP Markets actually offers an ample range of educational resources of pretty good quality. These include:

• eBooks
• Video tutorials
• Glossary
• Email newsletter
• Market analysis
• Written tutorials and strategies

The most noteworthy assets to mention here are, weirdly, eBooks. You can really tell that these eBooks are legitimately made by FP Markets due to the design they apply and how distinctly they’re written. These eBooks range from 20 to 30 pages and they focus on general trading knowledge for all sorts of users, although they manage to be really thorough on the topic of each one.

The video tutorials are somewhat generic, but they don’t need to be anything more since they’re limited to being introductory videos to the MetaTrader platform.

The glossary of terms is really thorough as well, same with the market analysis section, where you can read blog posts that are published on a daily and weekly basis. It’s a really fun way to get a grip on the current state of the markets and where it can go from there.

Overall, a really strong performance in this category, which makes FP Markets a great broker for beginners, newbies and people who are first-timers in this ever-changing industry. However, we don’t give it a perfect score for the time limit on its demo account. Having unlimited time on your demo account is a lot less stressing than having to constantly remember how many days ago you last used it.

FP Markets Demo Account & Educational Resources Score: 9/10

#10 Safety & Regulation

And finally, we reach our final category, one of the most important ones for both new and experienced traders alike. FP Markets does a pretty good job of its overall safety and regulation performance. The broker adheres to strict capital requirements so it can meet any client’s payout obligations when it’s needed. It’s also partnered with financial institutions like HSBC, JP Morgan, Barclays and Goldman Sachs so it can ensure multi-asset liquidity in most case scenarios. All of this creates a very well managed and safe scenario for both the broker and the traders.

On the regulation side, FP Markets is both regulated and licensed by the CySEC (Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission) and the ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission), which makes it regulated in both the EU and Australia. However, the CySEC protects EU customers for up to €20,000 with added negative balance protection while Australian traders can’t enjoy these benefits under the ASIC.

So, on the very general side, European customers are the ones who really have their hides covered in any case where something bad happens, but even then, the ASIC also vouches for Australian traders even if it doesn’t offer the same failsafe. Also, having such financial partners and being regulated by 2 of the most renowned corporations is no easy feat, so FP Markets really does a perfect job in this category, which is infinitely important.

FP Markets Safety & Regulation Score: 10/10

We’ve finally reached the end of this FP Markets review, but this doesn’t mean we’re done. According to our scoring system, FP Markets got a total score of 85/100, which is a great score on its own and definitely puts the broker in at least our top 10 brokers worldwide as of now. But, is there a broker better than FP Markets? The answer to that is yes, yes there is, Capital.com.

FP Markets vs. Capital.com

As we mentioned, Capital.com scored a total 91/100, which is the highest score a broker has gotten so far in our reviews. So, now that we know that FP Markets scored a solid 85/100 what truly makes them different? Let’s head into the main differences between these brokers and why we think that Capital.com is better, even if it only slightly wins the race by 6 points.

Fees Comparison

FP Markets and Capital.com are very similar in this aspect because both brokers use the very famous $0 commission model for their fee structures. However, FP Markets charges withdrawal fees while Capital.com doesn’t. Aside from that Capital.com is also a fee-free broker that doesn’t apply inactivity nor deposit fees and probably will never do so!

Ease of Use: Iress Vs Everything Else

As we’ve mentioned earlier, one of the things that’s most prominent of this broker is its Iress accounts. The thing is, if you haven’t got $1,000+ to deposit into this broker, you’re stuck with a MetaTrader account by default.

Using MetaTrader isn’t bad by any means, but when we compare it, the average platform traders will use in FP Markets, to Capital.com’s proprietary platform, there’s a lot to say. Capital.com created its own platform with most features an expert trader would need while at the same time keeping things simple for newbies. It’s a platform that can hold both kinds of traders by offering distinct levels of depth and customizability with an added visual flair that MetaTrader doesn’t have at all.

Seeing things from a broad perspective and then focusing on FP Markets accounts and platforms can really give you some insight into the broker. The thing is that here we have a broker that asks $1,000 to use its proprietary exclusive platform and another one, Capital.com, that asks merely $20 for access to its platform as well. Distinct much?

Asset Classes Comparison

This one is simply another chance to nag at Iress vs MetaTrader accounts. The thing is, the fact that MetaTrader users get access to 145 assets while Iress users get access to almost 9,000 assets is ridiculous. It seems like something that’s deliberately done so MetaTrader accounts compare poorly to Iress accounts so people always opt-in for the latter.

Now, on the other side of the pond, we have Capital’s.com unique and only account, where we get access to 2,000+ assets, including stocks, indices, Forex pairs, commodities, bonds, ETFs and even cryptocurrency. Sure, 8,000+ assets sound like a lot, but Capital.com focuses a  lot more on other asset’s variety that just an obscene amount of shares.

At the end of the day, Capital.com might be best for an average trader who’s looking to diversify its investments, all with $0 trading commissions, a great platform and a great place to just trade. If you’re ready to make a choice now, you can do so by clicking the button below, but if you want to read more about the broker, you can always read this thorough review.

FP Markets Review: In Summary

We firmly believe that FP Markets does a great job of what it really wants to focus on. That being, offering one of the biggest CFD stocks repertoire in the whole industry, one of the most solid customer support services, a lot of ways to get your money into and out of the broker and some solid education and regulation.

It’s an understatement to say that FP Markets is a powerhouse when it comes to stock and Forex trading, however, there are some certain things that hold it back. FP Markets is not as good or varied if you don’t go for an Iress account, which automatically locks you out of around 9,000 stocks, which is, again, ridiculous. However, if you do opt-in for an Iress account, you’ll be enjoying one of the most complete and best brokers out there, so why not apply right now?

However, for those same flaws, we have to recommend Capital.com as well if Iress seems like too much of a commitment. You won’t necessarily get as many shares, but you will get an account with a unique platform with no service fees whatsoever, unlike Iress accounts, which in our book is absolutely better. So, a $20 minimum initial deposit for a great account doesn’t sound awesome to you?