FOREX.com Broker Review

FOREX.com is a popular broker and has amassed over 500,000 customers worldwide since its inception in 2001. Its parent company, StoneX Group Inc., is regulated by eight national authorities and is publicly listed on the NASDAQ, providing further regulatory oversight.

CIMA Regulation: Ugandan traders will be trading with FOREX.com’s Cayman Islands-based subsidiary, GAIN Global Markets, which has less regulatory supervision than the EU, UK, or Australia. This allows FOREX.com to provide higher levels of leverage to Ugandan traders, but traders will not have negative balance protection or any legal recourse in the event of a dispute with the company. 

Safety Features: All FOREX.com client funds are kept in segregated bank accounts and, unlike many brokers operating in Uganda, maximum leverage is kept relatively low at 200:1 – providing a lower-risk trading environment for beginner traders.

Although Ugandan traders will be trading with FOREX.com’s Cayman-Islands-based subsidiary, which has less regulatory supervision than FOREX.com’s companies based in the UK or Australia, it segregates its client funds from company funds and provides all traders with negative balance protection. On this basis, we consider FOREX.com a safe broker.

FOREX.com’s account-opening process is seamless and hassle-free compared to other market makers.

All Ugandan residents are eligible to open a trading account at FOREX.com but will have to meet the minimum deposit requirement of 100 USD.

The account opening process is fully digital and fast – most traders will have an account open within one day. 

How to open an account at FOREX.com:

1. On the front page of the website, traders can click on a button marked “Open an Account”
2. Traders will be directed to a page that requires them to choose their preferred trading account (Standard, Raw Spread or MetaTrader).
3. Once traders have selected their account, they will be required to enter all their personal data.
4. The next step requires filling in your physical address details, country of residence, tax information, and identity number.
5. Traders will then have to detail their trading experience, including their financial status, and their trading history. Traders can also choose their preferred base currency (EUR, USD, or GBP).
6. Before submitting this information, traders are required to agree with all FOREX.com’s Terms and Conditions, and privacy policy.
7. As part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, newly registered users are required to provide confirmation of residence (e.g. a valid utility bill dated within the last 6 months), as well as proof of identity such as a valid passport, or another form of officially issued photo ID.

The verification process can sometimes take a few days, and you will be notified once your account is verified. You can also follow your verification status on the FOREX.com platform. 

Compared to other brokers, FOREX.com’s account opening process is fast, fully digital, and hassle-free.

FOREX.com offers trading on Forex, indices, shares, commodities, and cryptocurrencies.

Trading costs are account and platform dependent and range between 5 and 10 USD, charged either in commission or the spread.

We opened and tested FOREX.com‘s accounts:

Standard Account

The Standard Account has a minimum deposit of 100 USD, variable spreads (as low as 0.70 pips on the EUR/USD), and no commission. The Standard Account is available on the FOREX.com platform, MT4 and MT5.

Raw Spread Account

The Raw Spread Account also has a minimum deposit of 100 USD and variable spreads but charges a commission of 10 USD round turn per lot traded. Spreads on the EUR/USD can be as low as 0.0 pips with this account. The Raw Spread Account is available on the FOREX.com and MT5 platforms.

MetaTrader Accounts

Similar to the Standard Account, the MetaTrader Accounts are commission-free accounts with a minimum deposit of 100 USD, and spreads that start at 1 pip (EUR/USD). However, as the name suggests, traders can only trade on MT4 and MT5. Be aware that choosing MT4 will limit the assets that you can trade.

Demo Accounts

The Standard and Raw Spread Accounts are available as demo accounts, but demo accounts will expire after 30 days, and you will be required to open a live account. The demo account also gives traders a real-time feel for market conditions.

Accepted Deposit Currencies: At FOREX.com, you can only choose from three base currencies: USD, GBP, and EUR. This is limited compared to most other international brokers operating in Uganda

Funding Methods: FOREX.com only accepts deposits and withdrawals via credit/debit card, e-wallets such as Skrill and Neteller, and bank transfers. 

All four of FOREX.com’s trading platforms are available on both Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets. Beginner traders should be aware that there is some loss in functionality when compared to the desktop trading platforms, including reduced timeframes and fewer charting options.

FOREX.com Mobile App

The FOREX.com app offers the best features available on the desktop version including the complete range of order types, trade analysis, and watchlists. Other features include advanced Trading Tools, which tracks both the performance analytics and provides market insight. 

MT4 and MT5

The MT4 and MT5 mobile apps allow traders to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit and loss in real-time and allow tick chart trading.

TradingView

TradingView is available on mobile and desktop for both Android and iOS. One of the most advanced charting platforms available, the mobile app allows traders to open and close positions, modify their stop-losses and take profits, deposit and withdraw funds, and analyse their trades. For more information on TradingView, see the section below.

Overall, FOREX.com’s mobile apps are user-friendly and well-designed and offer most of the features available on the desktop versions.

FOREX.com offers three desktop trading platforms which are excellent compared to other brokers.

FOREX.com offers four platforms to choose from, its own FOREX.com platform, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and TradingView. All platforms offer fast trading and advanced charting tools, including Expert Advisors, automated trading support, strategy backtesting, customisable charting, and a number of indicators.

The platforms are free to use and can be downloaded to your PC and all have web versions of the platform. They are also available on mobile Android and iOS devices.

The benefit of FOREX.com offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can take their customised versions of these platforms with them should they choose to migrate to another broker. See below for more details on FOREX.com’s trading platforms:

FOREX.com Platform

The most powerful version of the FOREX.com platform is the downloadable desktop client which offers professional analytics tools, over 100 predefined indicators, 15 time frames, and trading directly on charts. It also allows 6 order types, including Market Order, Entry Order, Stop Order, Limit Order, One Cancels Other, and Guaranteed Stop Loss Orders. The desktop version of the platform is better suited to more experienced traders. The FOREX.com platform is also available in your browser, with slightly decreased functionality, sacrificing customisability for simplicity.

MetaTrader 4

The MT4 trading platform is the most widely used Forex trading platform and can also be used to trade other instruments like commodities, cryptocurrency, stock index, and stock CFDs. Though it now shows its age, MT4 is still very popular for its auto trading features that enable algorithmic trading and strategy backtesting with expert advisors (trading robots).

Unlike most standard MetaTrader 4 platforms you will find at other brokers, FOREX.com’s MT4 comes with fully integrated Reuters news, FOREX.com’s research and analysis, and Trading Central.

MetaTrader 5

The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time. It has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has more pending order types than MT4 and features an embedded chat system. In addition, the MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor and MT5 has more advanced charting tools than MT4.

TradingView

FOREX.com recently added TradingView to its arsenal of trading platforms. TradingView is free of charge for traders who open a live account. It is an excellent platform for researching, charting, and screening instruments. Additional features of FOREX.com’s TradingView include:

• 50+ intelligent charting tools
• Over 100,000 custom user-built indicators and scripts
• Synchronised layout for multiple charts
• Advanced drawing tools
• Ten chart types.

FOREX.com offers several useful trading tools, including VPS services, Trading Central, SMART Signals, and TradingView.

Trading Central

Trading Central is available to clients who register a live account. A third-party tool, Trading Central’s professional analysts use the most advanced technical analysis tools in the industry to curate relevant information. This tool essentially supports traders without the technical know-how in making trading decisions. Trading Central is one of the most popular trading tools available and provides excellent market analysis, and FOREX.com does well to offer this service to its clients.

SMART Signals

FOREX.com offers SMART Signals, a technical analysis tool that provides live trade ideas by harnessing the power of trading algorithms. It also allows traders to see how SMART Signals have performed in the past so that they can decide how they may perform in the future.

VPS

For traders with a minimum 5000 USD balance, FOREX.com supplies free VPS hosting, allowing for a more complete automated trading strategy. It allows traders to run automated algorithmic strategies, including expert advisors 24 hours a day 7 days a week on a virtual machine. VPS services have the advantage of never suffering connectivity issues and have extremely low latency due to their proximity to major international exchanges. 

FOREX.com has one of the best market research and analysis sections we have reviewed. Posts by the in-house research team and detailed and cover all aspects of the financial markets. Full of trading opportunities and insightful analysis, it is no surprise that the FOREX.com X (Twitter) feed has over 230k followers.

Posts can be filtered by author, market, theme, or trending topics, and the site is updated multiple times a day. Also, in the analytical section, you can find a good economic calendar and a very helpful pivot point calculator for on-the-fly technical analysis.

The education section at FOREX.com has obviously been designed by an experienced team of Forex educators. It is intended to slowly build confidence and help beginners learn how to trade forex with a wealth of educational tools and online resources.

The first thing new traders will find is a Self-assessment Quiz, which will help beginners identify where they are at in their trading journey. From here you can link off to three different sections of educational material: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. You can also check out individual themes, such as technical analysis and risk management.

Each section is clear, concise, and carefully tailored to the experience level of the trader. All the educational resources are free to all visitors of FOREX.com’s site.

The major downside for beginners is the limited demo account, which will expire after 30 days on all platforms.

Like most brokers, customer support is available 24/5 (from 10 am Sunday to 5 pm Friday) via phone, email, and live chat. While English is FOREX.com’s main support language, support is also available in Arabic, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Chinese, depending on the availability. You can also interact with the FOREX.com teams via Facebook, Instagram, and X. 

For the purposes of this review, we found the customer support responsive and well-informed.