HERE IS A LIST OF FOREX BROKERS THAT OFFER ECN TRADING
Best ECN Forex Brokers in South Africa
ECN stands for electronic communication network. ECN is a system a broker uses to connect buyers to liquidity providers in the market. When an investor wishes for a secure transaction without using a middleman, the ECN system is the right fit for such an investor. Today we will look at some of the best ECN brokers in South Africa. But before that, we are going to cover our basis on two important things.
Are ECN Accounts Available for South African Traders?
Yes, ECN accounts are available for South African traders through brokers that offer ECN services. Traders can ask directly to their broker about their trading execution model. Also, regulated brokers are transparent and will have details of their execution model on their platform.
Exness is one of the biggest brokers in the world offering CFDs on forex, metals, and cryptocurrencies. In fact, this company has probably the largest trading volume among all forex brokers at $2.275 trillion. In Africa, South Africa is an active jurisdiction in forex trading. Luckily, Exness gladly accepts clients from South Africa. Today, we will look at the minimum deposit on the Exness Zar account. We will also look at what this broker has to offer to clients in South Africa.
Our criteria for choosing the best South African ECN forex broker
There are four key features when identifying the best ECN brokers.
- The forex broker has to offer an ECN account.
- Regulations and licenses - We will only review brokers that have reputable regulations such as the South African FSCA or the Australian ASIC.
- Variety and availability of assets - Brokers that offer a variety of trading instruments help traders to diversify their investments and hence will rank higher.
- Trading fees - We will consider trading fees considering no trader wants to pay large sums of money when trading.
- The trading platform - The trading platform offered by the broker has to be suitable for all kinds of traders and offer fast execution.
Now, let's see some of the best ECN forex brokers in South Africa.
Best ECN Forex Brokers in South Africa
Pepperstone
Pepperstone is an ECN broker that sources pricing from external liquidity providers and offers no desk dealing. Clients can choose between two accounts, the standard account and the razor account. The standard account offers spreads as low as 1.0 pips with no commission. On the other hand, the spreads on the raw account are as low as 0.0 pips with a low commission of $3.50 per side per lot.
Further, Pepperstone provides various trading instruments from various markets. In total, the company allows investors to trade over 1,200 CFDs on forex, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, shares, and ETFs. With this kind of diversity, it's no surprise why Pepperstone is highly rated. Moreover, it offers market standard and advanced trading platforms that include Meta Trader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, and TradingView which have some of the fastest execution speeds in the market.
In terms of regulations, the company has 7 licenses from well-respected organizations in the market that include the CMA in Kenya, the CySEC in Cyprus, the ASIC in Australia and the FCA in the UK. Such strong regulatory framework gives Pepperstone a good reputation in the market.
FP Markets
FP Markets is one of the brokers offering ECN technology to South African traders. The broker streams prices directly from their liquidity provider. By connecting to a number of liquid providers FP Markets can offer low spreads, minimal slippage, and ultra-fast execution. What's more, traders can choose between two accounts. These include the standard and raw accounts. Spreads are as low as 1.0 pips for major currency pairs on the standard account. They go even lower on the raw account starting from 0.0 pips. There is no commission on the standard account, but the raw account features a relatively small commission of 3$ USD per lot per side.
FP Markets is regulated in South Africa by the FSCA but also has regulations from other reputable organizations. These include regulations from CySEC in Cyprus and the ASIC in Australia. With such regulations, FP Markets has a good standing among traders.
Additionally, FP Marketa offers access to various global markets that include forex, shares, commodities, indices, bonds, EFTs, and cryptocurrencies. Traders are able to spread their risk on various assets with over 10,000 trading instruments available for traders to choose from. Clients can trade using WebTrader, MetaTrader 4 and 5, cTrader, and Iress.
Forex.com
Forex.com DMA account gives South African traders access to deep liquidity from various sources. Forex.com gives its traders ECN-like trading conditions through its DMA (direct market access) account. On this account, clients are charged a standard commission on the monthly income. For instance, when you earn an income of $0M-$100M you will be charged 60$ USD per million traded.
With this broker, clients have access to over 5,500 trading products including over 80 currency pairs. Traders can invest in markets like forex, indices, stocks, commodities, cryptocurrency, and precious metals. For trading platforms, this broker offers its clients some of the best trading platforms including MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and Forex.com Trader.
Finally, Forex.com has regulations from various jurisdictions. The company has licenses from the FSCA in South Africa, the CySEC in Cyprus, and the ASIC in Australia. These are some of the most reputable brokers in the market and the broker has to follow strict rules to have a license from them.
IC Markets
IC Markets is regarded as one of the biggest brokers by trading volume. With features like the availability of ECN accounts for South African traders and its variety of trading platforms to choose from, this company stands out. The platforms available to clients to use include MT4, MT5, and cTrader. With this, it's understandable why clients enjoy the services of this broker.
Additionally, IC Markets offers two trading accounts, the raw spread account and the standard account. The standard has spread as low as 0.6 pips with no commission. On the other hand, the raw account has a small commission of 3.5$ per lot per side but makes up for its low spread of 0.0 pips.
Traders that want to diversify their investment would find IC Markets attractive. This broker site has over 2,200 instruments to choose from. These include assets from the forex, commodity indices, futures, stocks, bonds, and metals markets.
In terms of regulations, the broker is regulated by two of the best regulators in the market. These include the CySEC in Cyprus and ASIC in Australia. Knowing regulations play a huge role in protecting traders from defrauders, we insist that traders invest only with brokers that are regulated by reputable organizations.
InstaForex
InstaForex is one of the CFD brokers that offer ECN trading to South African traders. While the broker is not regulated in South Africa, it has licenses from some of the most respected regulators in the market. the company is regulated by the CySEC in Cyprus, the FSC, the SIBA, and the BVIFSC. While regulations are not enough, it is a good sign for a broker to have licenses from some of the stringent organizations in the market.
InstaForex strives to meet its client's needs and offers several types of popular trading platforms. These include Meta Trader 4, Meta Trader 5, Multiterminal, and WebTrader. The trading platforms have extensive tool kits for charting and analysis to meet trader needs. Investing with this broker features some fairly high spreads compared to some competitors. The standard account on this broker site features spreads that only go as low as 3.0 pips.
Vantage Markets
Vantage Markets is another ECN broker available for South African traders. This broker offers clients a Raw ECN trading environment that gives traders the most trade-effective conditions. South African traders will be able to trade forex on institutional-grade liquidity directly from the largest banks and institutions.
The spreads on Vantage Markets depend on the account type a user is using. For example, the average spread on the Standard STP account starts at 1.4 pips for major currency pairs. The company also provides an ECN account based on commissions. Traders pay a commission of $3 per side per lot on this account.
We always look at the regulatory status of a broker knowing that brokers that are regulated by reputable organizations offer better services than unregulated ones. Fortunately, Vantage Markets does not disappoint with regulations from CySEC in Cyprus and ASIC in Australia, two of the finest regulators in the market.
Further, this broker offers market-standard trading platforms which include MT4, MT5, ProTrader and WebTrader. Additionally, traders can invest in various markets on Vantage Markets. In total, traders can invest in more than 1,000 different assets from various asset classes. This includes CFDs on forex pairs, indices, precious metals, commodities, energy, ETFs, shares, and bonds.
South African traders have access to some of the best brokers in the market that offers ECN trading. With such brokers, traders get some of the best institutional-grade liquidity from the largest banks and institutions. The brokers on this list offer such services plus fast execution from industry-standard platforms. Additionally, these brokers offer some of the tightest spreads in the market, a variety of trading instruments, and regulations from renowned regulators in the market.
Lastly, this is not the full-scale list. There are other reputable brokers that did not make it to our list. However, you shouldn’t pick a broker simply because they offer ECN services. Make sure they are reputable, regulated, and offer great trading conditions.