FP Markets

FP Markets is a broker that seeks to create excellent forex and CFD trading environment that gives traders access to the global markets. The broker asserts that it knows the needs of traders and so has provided ECN pricing, swift executions, powerful platforms, wide product range, market analysis, excellent support, etc.

Founded since 2005, its head office is in Sydney, Australia while other offices are in Limassol, Cyprus and Kingston in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. FP Markets provides raw ECN spreads courtesy of its premium liquidity providers. Through its servers located at Equinix NY4 data centre, client orders are executed swiftly without requotes. There is no dealing desk and no restrictions to trading strategies; scalpers, trading robots, etc are all welcome.

The broker has received about 38 awards for its outstanding brokerage services.

Regulation and Security

FP Markets is a group of companies registered in a few countries and still expanding.

First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd is the head office and registered in Australia. It is authorised and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

First Prudential Markets Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). It operates the domains: www.fpmarkets.eu and www.fpmarkets.com/eu. The company is a member of the ‘Investor Compensation Fund’ (ICF). So, if FP Markets becomes insolvent, clients that fall within this regulatory jurisdiction will be entitled to compensations up to €20,000.

FP Markets LLC is a company registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This company operates the international arm of FP Markets brokerage.

All clients’ funds are deposited in segregated accounts where they are not used by FP Markets for any other purpose except for funding clients’ positions.

Account Opening

FP Markets offers fast account opening in 3 steps; register, fund and trade. The first step is to click ‘open live’ which is found on the menu bar.

Input your personal details, information, choose account type, currency and other required info. Accept the declaration and you will get a welcome message.

Finally, upload your KYC, make a deposit, download platform and start opening trade positions.

Account types

FP Markets account types are designed for the MetaTrader platforms and the IRESS platforms. Generally, account currencies can be maintained in USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, SGD, CHF, CAD, JPY and HKD.

MT4 and MT5 accounts

Standard Account

The spreads start from 1.0 pip and no commissions are charged. A minimum of $100 AUD is required to open this account but the CySEC regulated jurisdiction accepts $50/€50/£50 as minimum and has a maximum leverage of 1:30. International clients are offered a leverage of up to 1:500.

Raw account

This account is best for experts; it features raw spreads starting from 0.0 pips but additional commissions of $6 per round lot are charged on each trade. The opening balance and leverage remains the same with the standard account. For trading equity CFDs, the commission per side is 0.1% with minimum of $10 AUD for Australian equities, 3 cents per share with a minimum of $10 for US stocks, 0.1% with minimum of €10 and £10 for European and UK stocks respectively.

Islamic account

These are swap free accounts that do not pay or receive interests when open positions are left overnight. FP Markets only offers Islamic accounts on the MT4 and MT5 platforms but not on the IRESS platform. To open an Islamic account, first register a Standard or Raw MT4/MT5 account and email onboardingteam@pfmarket.com to convert it to Islamic account.

Demo accounts

Practice accounts are available on all platforms. It is preloaded with $100,000 virtual funds meant for practice purposes.

IRESS accounts

IRESS accounts and platforms are only available to clients from the Australian regulated areas. The account types are:

Standard account

The minimum deposit required is $1,000 AUD and the minimum commission per trade is $10 AUD, then 0.1%.

Platinum account

The minimum deposit required is $25,000 AUD and the minimum commission per trade is $9 AUD, then 0.09%.

Premier account

The minimum deposit required is $ 50,000 AUD; a commission of 0.08% applies for each trade and there is no minimum.

On the IRESS platform, commissions of 0.08% are charged on Australian stocks, 0.1% on European and British stocks with a minimum of €10 and £10 respectively. For US stocks, it is 2 cents per share with a minimum of $15. Forex trading fees are charged from the spread.

The MT4, MT5 and IRESS mobile platforms are free but IRESS trader and IRESS viewpoint platforms attract a monthly fee of $55. But, the fee is waived if a trader opens up to 15 trades in a month and generates more than $150 in commissions.

Deposit and Withdrawals

FP Markets affirms that it is easy and fast to fund your trading account. The following options are available:

Online payment

Neteller, Skrill, PayTrust, NganLuong.vn, FasaPay, DragonPay, Perfect Money, ZotaPay, FairPay, Paylivre, Sofort, GiroPay and Indian Payment method are the available options. Most deposits are processed instantly but some may take up to a day. There are no deposit fees but withdrawal fees ranging from 0.5% to 2% is applicable.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and USD Tether can be used for both deposit and withdrawals courtesy of ‘LetKnowPay’. Payment is completed within one hour and blockchain fees apply.

Bank transfers

International bank transfers can be done from anywhere in the world to and from FP Markets bank accounts. No deposit fees are charged but where fees are applicable; FP Market pays the deposit fees up to $50 for deposits more than $10,000. International withdrawal fee is 10 AUD but local bank withdrawals are free.

Debit and Credit cards

Popular cards like Visa and Mastercard can be used for deposits and withdrawals in up to 9 currencies. Typically, card deposits are instant but takes up to a business day for the IRESS platform. Withdrawals also take 1 working day and all card transactions are free.

Trading Instruments

Below are some of the trading instruments that are available on the FP Markets brokerage:

• 63 forex pairs
• On the IRESS platform, there are over 10,000 stock CFDs and over 500 on the MT4/MT5
• 5 Metal CFDs
• 8 commodities
• 13 indices
• 5 Cryptocurrencies

Trading Platforms

IRESS

This is a modern CFD trading platform that gives in-depth market data, news and analytics. Here are some of the salient features of the FP Markets IRESS platform:

• Intuitive and fully customizable interface and templates.
• Direct Market Access Pricing
• Access to trade over 10,000 share CFDs, forex, metals, commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies.
• Advanced charting package
• 59 indicators, more than 50 drawing tools

FP Markets IRESS platform is only available to the ASIC regulated jurisdiction. It is available in 4 versions as follows:

• IRESS Viewpoint: web based version that runs on latest browsers.
• IRESS Trader: can be downloaded on windows and MAC computers
• IRESS Viewpoint essential
• IRESS Mobile: Designed for market analysis and trading on the go. It is available for android and iPhone which can be downloaded from the respective app stores.

MT4 and MT5 trading platforms

MT4 was launched in 2005 while the MT5 was launched in 2010 by the same company; MetaQuotes Software Corporation which is a fintech company with headquarters in Cyprus. As at today, MT4 is the most used forex and CFD trading platform and has become the unofficial standard for rating brokers. It is fast, flexible and scalable allowing its default features and functions to be extended through plugin apps. It also supports automated trading through the development and installation of Expert Advisors (EAs) which are basically trading robots. It comes with technical analysis tools; which includes charting package, indicators, drawing tools, etc.

The MT5 has the same look and feel as the MT4 but being a later release, it comes with more powerful features than the MT4. For example, it comes with the economic calendar, more technical indicators, more chart timeframes, more pending order types, etc. EAs as well as other expansion plugin apps can be installed and run on the MT5. The only problem is that both platforms are not compatible and so, MT4 apps will not run on the MT5.

FP Markets mobile app

The FP Markets proprietary mobile app integrates with MT4 accounts. The following functions are available:

• From the app, you can sign up for new real or demo account and also access the clients’ area.
• Clients can create and use favourites menu to monitor the prices of assets of interest.
• You can fund your account using over 10 payment options.
• Monitor market prices, open and close trading positions using multiple order types.
• You can view the charts of all available instruments in 9 timeframes and analyze the markets.

 It is available for android and iOS devices which can be downloaded from each of the app stores.

Research and tools

Social trading

FP Markets gives its clients the opportunity to automatically copy the trades of other expert traders in order to replicate their strategies, make profits without worrying about market movements, analysis or even learning how to trade. First, the investor or copier views the performance statistics of the providers and make a choice of whom to copy his trades. He can monitor his account’s performance, change provider to copy his trades and set limits on his account.

If you are an expert trader, you can enable others to automatically copy your trades at a performance fee set by you. Both copiers and providers register and use the MT4 or MT5 platforms.

Myfxbook AutoTrade  

This is a popular automated mirroring service where FP Markets clients can link their account to Myfxbook’s AutoTrade and automatically copy the trades of other expert traders from all over the world. AutoTrade has a huge selection of expert traders trading with real accounts and the copier is in complete control of whom to copy, how to copy and limits. No additional software is needed and the signal providers only get paid when they make profits.

 MAMM/PAMM account

These are managed accounts where account managers trade on behalf of other traders or investors using one Master account. FP Markets has powerful MAM/PAMM software which enables the account manager to on-board and customize new accounts, access ECN pricing and liquidity, manage orders, perform analysis and even deploy EAs. The money manager can set his commissions, account currency, fees, margin call, etc.

The investor can easily deposit and withdraw from his account as well as monitor real time performance of his account.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

FP Markets provides low latency VPS for all its clients. This is done in partnership with ForexVPS; a renowned firm that provides forex brokers and traders with reliable servers to ensure uninterruptible connection. But, the basic service becomes free when you trade 10 lots from a standard account or 20 lots from a raw account within a month. New clients will get the service at no cost if they deposit $1,000 or more.

 MT4 Traders toolbox

The toolbox comprise of a suite of 12 online trading tools that will be of immense benefit to traders. This MT4 plugin adds the economic calendar, technical indicators, order management functions, sentiments, etc to the MT4 trading platform. Below are the tools added:

• Trader Toolbox connect
• Alarm manager
• Correlation Trader
• Correlation Matrix
• Excel RTD
• Market Manager
• Stealth Orders
• Tick Chart
• Session Map
• Trade Terminal
• Mini Terminal
• Sentiment Trader

Forex trading calculator

FP Markets makes available the following calculators:

• Pip Calculator
• Currency Converter
• Margin Calculator
• Swaps Calculator
• Profit Calculator

Autochartist

This is technical analysis tool that can be configured to scan the markets in real time, identify trading opportunities and alert the trader to make decisions. The alerts may be delivered via email, push notifications or in the clients’ area. FP Markets provides this tool as an MT4 and MT5 plugin app and also as android and iOS apps. Autochartist can scan multiple markets simultaneously and it is available in up to 24 languages. 

Education

Video tutorials

There are a few beginner trading educational videos facilitated by FP Markets analyst; Aaron Hill.

eBooks

FP Markets asserts that its team of professionals wrote the eBooks to provide essential training and guides to help traders succeed in CFD trading. Altogether, there are 5 eBooks covering trading strategies, trading tips, fundamental and technical analysis methods. To get any of the books, just submit your email in the provided spaces.

Daily Market Report

FP Markets experts prepare and deliver daily market reports on a variety of instruments. This report is sent to subscribers via daily email newsletter.

Webinars

Frequently, interactive training webinars are scheduled on FP Markets website. The webinars are anchored by FP Markets team of experts and are free. You can also watch previous webinars from the archive available on the website.

Podcasts

This is also available on the website. This periodic audio presentation gives some market insights, trading tips and serve as a useful training resource.

Events

Occasionally, FP Markets organizes events and seminars where traders and prospective clients can come in for training. The seminar is taught by its in-house expert analysts.

Traders hub

This is a blog operated by FP Markets. It contains various articles grouped into sections like technical analysis, fundamental analysis, videos, news, research and education.

Glossary

FP Markets provides a glossary over 300 trading terms and their definitions. The glossary is well arranged on a webpage which makes it easy to scroll to the desired term easily.

Customer support

The client support desk works round the clock 24/5. Newbies are encouraged to first explore the FAQs which has many questions grouped under account opening, company info, funding/withdrawals, trading, partners and top 10 questions.

There are about 18 toll free customer support lines from different countries that can be used to reach the multilingual support team. To request a call from the support team at your convenience, you can fill the ‘Call-back request form’ available on the website. Also, you can send an email or chat up a support representative on the website by clicking the ‘live support’ button found at the bottom right of every page. You can also get updates and support via ‘Telegram’; the link is also on all pages of the FP Markets website. Other social media channels are: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Summary

FP Markets is an experienced Australian broker that has been in operations for over 15 years. It has won more than 37 awards in different areas of operations such as customer service, trade execution, etc. It is regulated by ASIC and CySEC which are regarded and top tier regulators.

Tight spreads are streamed on the platforms as aggregated from the liquidity providers. Trade executions are fast without requotes. Account opening is fast with several deposit and withdrawal options. The available platforms; IRESS, MT4 and MT5 platform are all powerful platforms replete with analytical and trading tools. Furthermore, traders are supported with multiple tools like Autochartist, Traders toolbox, free VPS, Daily market reports, etc. Investors can take advantage of the provided social trading platforms as well as MAMM and PAMM accounts.

However, withdrawal charges apply but vary according to the withdrawal options used. Trading on the IRESS platform is relatively expensive and exclusively for Australian clients. With multiple awards, top tier regulations and over many years brokerage experience, FP Markets is definitely on its way to the top.