Pepperstone Forex Review by professional Forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team, Finding out everything you need to know about the broker is in this Pepperstone Forex Review.
Pepperstone Forex Review
Pepperstone maintains several unique trading accounts. The Edge Standard account is intended for regular traders, offering STP processing and interbank spreads on the popular MT4, while the Razor account is targeted at advanced and EA traders and offers lower spreads (and, of course, higher trading costs). There is an additional account offered to high volume traders and institutional partners – the Edge Active Traders account, which offers higher level of service: superior ECN EDGE execution and also an experienced and dedicated manager working with the account holder. What is more, there is a swap-free account compliant with Sharia law available at Peperstone.
Pepperstone is an Australian-based ECN forex broker founded in 2010. The Melbourne-based company Pepperstone Group Ltd. is ASIC-regulated and also has offices in London, Dallas, Shanghai and Bangkok.. The broker offers its clients options to trade forex (more than 70 currency pairs), Index CFDs, precious metals, energy, and cryptocurrencies. It also has a UK subsidiary, which is duly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Pepperstone is a relatively new broker, however it gained popularity for providing sophisticated trading solutions and excellent trading conditions. In 2014 it was awarded as the fastest growing company in Australia by BRW Magazine.
Pepperstone holds an Australian Financial Services License and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). ASIC requires licensed financial services providers to meet strict capital requirements and to comply with various internal procedures for risk management, accounting and audits. As for the minimum capital requirement, ASIC requires forex brokers to hold at least $ 1 million in order to provide financial services legitimately. The UK regulatory authority FCA requires forex brokers to possess a minimum of 730 000 EUR a.
Additionally, Pepperstone stated on its website that it maintains client segregated accounts held with top-tier banks and also that it holds Professional Indemnity Insurance with Lloyds of London.
Despite the regulation and the requirements set to brokers, one should be aware of the risks of trading Margin FX and CFDs. Unlike the EU-based brokers, Australian ones are not covered by any compensation scheme. Clients of the UK subsidiary of Pepperstone, however , fall under the umbrella of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which protects consumers up to £50,000 per person per company
Trading Conditions
Minimum deposit
Pipestone’s clients can start trading with 200 AUD or equivalent as a minimum. For instance, ThinkForex, another Australian based broker, requires $ 250 minimum initial deposit and offers average spreads amounting to 1.2 pips, while AvaTrade, also headquartered in Australia, requires just $100 to start with and average floating spreads amounting to 1.8 pips on the EUR/USD.
Spreads and commissions
As regards the spreads offered by Peppersone, the average ones amount to 1.2 pips on the EUR/USD for the Edge Standard account and 0.8 pips for the Edge Razor account.
Another component of trading costs are commission fees charged by brokers. Pepperstone, however, charges commission on the Edge Razor account only, amounting to $3.5 per 100k traded, while the Standard one is commission-free.
Speaking of trading costs, we should also mention that admin charges are applicable to the Islamic account type, if a trade has been held for 3 days or more. Their amount ranges from 3 to 150 points, depending on the currency pair.
Another feature offered by this broker that is worth our attention is the Pepperstone Price Improvement (PPI), which in fact is positive slippage. The PPI technology fills your orders at a more favorable level automatically should prices move to traders’ advantage.
Leverage
As for leverage, the maximum leverage provided by Pepperstone is 500:1. This is considered to be a high leverage especially bearing in mind in many countries there are limits on leverage, far lower than this. For instance the max leverage allowed in US is 50:1 and in Japan leverage is limited to 25:1.
Besides, this brokers one of the highest leverage levels for trading in Bitcoin CFDs – 1:20.
Trading Platforms
Pepperstone provides its clients with a choice of three platforms: MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5 and cTrader. The industry standard MT4 is available for Mac, iPad/tablet, Android and iPhone. Also, a web-based MT4 version is offered, called WebTrader. A web version of the cTrader platform is also offered, as well as such for mobile devices. What is more, the cTrader platform has a cAgo option, allowing trading with robots and developing of custom indicators in C#.
The three trading platforms offered by Peppersrone are probably the most popular ones in the industry. The MT5 was developed and marketed as an improvement on MT4, yet many brokers still prefer the earlier technology, because MT5 does not allow hedging, and what is more, MT4’s indicators and Expert Advisors (EA) are not supported on the MT5 platform. As regards the cTrader platform, it is custom-made for use with ECN brokerages and offers simple user-friendly interface.
Also, we have to mention some important features that Pepperstone offers its clients. First of all, the order execution infrastracture. Pepperstone has partnered with Equinix and through its NY4 data centre the broker participates in the Equinix Financial eXchange. Via this exchange Pepperstone accesses a number of low-latency networks, and is able to exchange data directly with strategic partners and customers.
Furthermore, Pepperstone wasthe first to offer the new trading functionality of the analysis tools providerAutochartist – “Trade Now” e-mail trading service.
Methods of Payment
Peperstone offers its clients a wide range of payment methods available: Bank Wire, Credit/Debit cards (Visa & MasterCard accepted), Skrill, Local Bank Deposit, Neteller, Bpay, Union Pay, PayPal, BPay, FasaPay, WebMoney, QIWI and POLI.
In conclusion, Pepperstone is one of the leading Australian-based brokerages, offering real fast execution, extremely low spreads, transparent pricing and reasonable trading costs.
Instead of the forex broker you can use Plus500, XM, eToro, Fxpro or AvaTrade forex brokers.
Pepperstone Forex Review Conclusion
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