Best Forex Brokers in South Africa
Broker of the month
- Spreads: as low as 0.2 pips*
- Trading instruments: 500+
- Platforms: MetaTrader 4 & MT5, HFM Platform
- Max. leverage: up to 1 : 2000
Risk warning: Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk and could result in the loss of your capital.
How do we select brokers featured on this page?
Finding the best forex broker is not an easy task. You need to ensure the broker is safe, reliable, and offers good trading conditions. We reviewed over 400 forex brokers and concluded that these are among the best forex and CFD brokers for South African traders.
Best South African Forex Brokers
We researched some of the best forex and CFD brokers that operate in South Africa and made a side by side comparison. Here it is.
HFM
Regulation: FSCA, CMA, FCA, CySEC
Spreads: as low as 0.2 pips*
Max. leverage: 1:2000, Forex pairs: 50+
Min. deposit: 0 ZAR/0$
HFM caters to South African traders with over 500 market products and is regulated in South Africa by the FSCA. HFM offers South African traders ZAR and USD as account base currencies and provides competitive trading conditions. Additionally, the broker offers high leverage up to 1:2000 and multiple account options with low spreads starting from 0.2 pips*. Currently, HFM is running a 100% deposit bonus promotion in SA (T&Cs apply).
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk and could result in the loss of your capital.
PrimeXBT
Regulation: FSCA, FSA, BCR, FSC
Spreads: as low as 0.1 pips
Max. leverage: 1:1000, Forex pairs: 45+
Min. deposit: 10$
PrimeXBT is a Forex and CFDs broker that provides access to global markets. Spreads on major forex pairs start from as low as 0.1 pips, and the minimum deposit is only 10 USD. The broker supports MT5 in addition to its proprietary trading platform and also offers a copy trading feature that allows users to follow top-performing traders. PrimeXBT is regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa.
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk and could result in the loss of your capital.
Pepperstone
Regulation: CMA, DFSA, FCA, ASIC
Spreads: as low as 1.0 pips
Max. leverage: 1:400, Forex pairs: 60+
Min. deposit: 0$
Pepperstone is a Forex and CFDs broker offering clients access to over 1,400 assets from the forex, commodities, indices, shares, and ETFs markets. Investors can trade on four platforms including TradingView, MT4, MT5 and cTrader. The spreads are low starting from 1.0 pips on the standard account with no commission paid. In South Africa, they are operating under the CMA license provided by the Kenyan regulatory authority.
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk and could result in the loss of your capital.
Regulation: FSC, CySEC, DFSA, Spreads: as low as 0.8 pips
Max. leverage: 1:1000, Forex pairs: 55, Min. deposit: 94 ZAR/5$
XM.com traders can use one of two popular trading platforms for executing trades and analyzing the markets: MT4 or MT5. On these platforms, South African traders can trade EUR/ZAR, USD/ZAR, and 53 other available currency pairs. The broker supports a base currency in ZAR and offers South African traders a $30 no-deposit starting bonus (T&Cs apply).
Regulation: FSC, DFSA, FCA, KNF, CySEC, Spreads: as low as 0.8 pips
Max. leverage: 1:500, Forex pairs: 57, Min. deposit: No minimum deposit
XTB clients can trade over 11,200 financial instruments on the broker's in-house platform called xStation 5. The company allows speculation on over 60 forex pairs, including EUR/ZAR, GBP/ZAR, and USD/ZAR. The XTB Group is regulated in Belize by the FSC, in the UK by the FCA, in Cyprus by the CySEC, and in Poland by the KNF.
Regulation: FSCA, FSC, CySEC, ASIC, Spreads: as low as 0.7 pips
Max. leverage: 1:3000, Forex pairs: 28, Min. deposit: 5$
FBS offers standard, cent and pro accounts, each featuring different benefits. FBS has floating spreads that start from 0.7 pips, the typical spread on EUR/USD is only 0.9 pips. The broker features popular platforms MT4 and MT5 along with FBS Trader (mobile app).
Your capital is at risk.
Regulation: CIMA, ASIC, FCA, CySEC, Spreads: as low as 0.8 pips
Max. leverage: 1:400, Forex pairs: 80, Min. deposit: 100 $
Forex.com features two popular forex retail platforms MT4 and MT5 on which South African traders can trade 80 forex pairs (including EUR/ZAR, GBP/ZAR, USD/ZAR, and ZAR/JPY) with up to 1:400 leverage. Forex.com is a part of StoneX Group Inc. which is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ.
How to find the Best Forex Broker in South Africa
As a trader based in South Africa, you need to consider aspects that are important to you when choosing a forex broker. These can include tight spreads, a trading platform that suits you, a good range of trading assets, regulation, a base account in ZAR, transparent operations, and supported deposit and withdrawal methods.
Rebate programs, no-deposit and deposit bonuses, and other marketing promotions that forex brokers offer are not important. What really matters is the broker's transparent operations, regulation, and fair fees.
Regulation is a crucial element that you need to consider. A broker that is regulated by a reputable financial regulatory body is overseen and monitored, and any misconduct against you, as a trader, is very unlikely, as there are very high sanctions and fines in hundreds of thousands of dollars that just no broker wants to have to deal with.
In South Africa, we have the financial regulator FSCA (Financial Sector Conduct Authority), which is the FBSA spin-off. This regulator can provide South African traders the best investor protection as it specifically represents South African's best interests.
In order to verify a broker is regulated by the FSCA, please visit the official website of the FSCA and use their search of authorised financial service providers -https://www.fsca.co.za/Fais/Search_FSP.htm. Here, in the "Filter by search" dropdown, select "OTC derivative Providers", then type the broker's name into the search column.
In other countries of the world, other regulatory bodies oversee the financial market. For instance, the most recognised and respected are in Europe the UK's FCA and in Cyprus the CySEC. In Australia, the same goes for the ASIC.
While these regulations do not directly provide any protection to traders from South Africa, brokers regulated by these regulators often have a very good reputation abroad as well, and it's definitely better to trade with such companies than to trade with ones that are not regulated at all or only by some weak regulatory body.
Some of the big and well-respected brokers regulated in Europe or Australia (Like XM.com or XTB) also accept South African traders under an entity that is, for instance, regulated in Belize by the FSC, or in Seychelles, regulated by the FSA. Unfortunately, these regulators are "weaker" in comparison to the ones in Europe or Australia.
That's why we believe that for South African traders, the best option here is to trade with a broker that is regulated by the local financial regulator (FSCA).
The more you pay in trading fees, the less you can actually make. With this in mind, your broker decision should be based on the fees the company charges. Most brokers are primarily compensated for their services through the Bid/Ask spread.
1# Spreads
The spread is the difference between the ask and bid price. For example, if you buy USD/ZAR at 15.1121 and can sell it back to your broker at 15.1283, the spread is 0.0162 (equivalent to 0.11%). As you can see, exotic pairs like USD/ZAR have relatively high spreads. For minor pairs, and particularly for major pairs like EUR/USD, spreads are much more competitive.
For this reason, forex brokers often advertise very low spreads, for example, as low as 0.8 pips (where the bid (sell) price might be 1.21542 and the ask (buy) price 1.21550), to showcase their most competitive rates. However, these advertised spreads typically apply only to major currency pairs like EUR/USD.
The best approach is to compare broker spreads specifically on the forex pairs you plan to trade most frequently. You can find spread information on most broker websites under their instrument pages.
The screenshot was taken from the Plus500 platform
(Used for illustration purposes only)
2# Swaps, also known as Overnight fees
Swaps are fees charged to your position if you hold trades overnight when the market is closed. Overnight funding fees can usually be found on the broker's instrument page or directly on their trading platform when you view detailed trade information.
The screenshot was taken from the Plus500 platform
(Used for illustration purposes only)
3# Deposit and withdrawal fees
Deposit and withdrawal fees are not common, and when they do apply, they typically cover only specific payment methods (such as bank transfers). With this in mind, make sure you know whether your broker charges these fees before funding your account.
4# Inactivity fee
The inactivity fee is charged to forex trading accounts that have not been active for a significant time period. This period is specified by each broker, though the industry standard is at least 90 days. The inactivity fee differs drastically from company to company. It can range from $5 to even several hundred dollars, so I advise withdrawing all your funds if you plan on taking a break from trading.
Most South African traders prefer having a trading account in South African Rand, and for good reason. After all, ZAR is rightfully positioned among the 20 most traded currencies in the world. Having a trading account in your local currency means you will not have to pay fees for converting your money to USD or other major currencies.
Forex brokers that support having a trading account in ZAR usually don't convert Rand to other currencies, which implies they have a local bank account located in S. Africa. If that's the case, all your deposits and withdrawals are made much faster than with any other currency.
Unfortunately, despite the popularity of forex trading in South Africa, the number of forex brokers offering a base account in ZAR is very limited.
Although having a base account in your local currency is advantageous, remember that brokers automatically convert your currency when you trade forex pairs in which your base account currency is not quoted. This means if your trading account is in ZAR and you buy the currency pair EUR/USD, your South African Rand gets converted to EUR.
The number of tradable forex pairs differs from broker to broker. While all major pairs are available nearly everywhere, the same cannot be said about minor and exotic pairs. So if you want to trade, for instance, ZAR against other currencies, make sure your broker offers such pairs on their platform.
Forex brokers often give South African traders access to very high leverage, which can range from 1:200 to even 1:3000. What this means is that when you trade, for instance, with R1,500 and the leverage is 1:300, you gain the effect of R450,000 capital. While you can make significant profits with high leverage even when prices change only slightly, it also means you can lose all your invested capital very quickly.