Forex, also called foreign currency trading or foreign exchange trading, is the process of exchanging one currency for another, generally for commerce, trading or tourism. It is also a sought-after method for parking money when equity markets are a volatile example: a stable Japanese yen.
A 2019 report from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) said the global daily average volume of forex trades stood at $5.1 trillion, which makes it the largest financial market in the world.
Forex is a marketplace for exchanging one currency for another, which are generally in pairs. For example EUR to USD or INR to USD.
In the UK alone, victims reported an average individual loss of £14,600 due to forex scams, the UK Financial Conduct Authority said in 2019. Between 2001 and 2007, over 26,000 US citizens were defrauded to the tune of $460 million, says CFTC.
The risks in general are:
There are several ways to recognize a possible foreign exchange trading scam:
We have previously researched a forex certification scam by IFMRRC.
Apart from the basic checks to see if a website is a scam, also check if the company is certified by the national financial authority or regulator.
Here we are listing a few forex traders and brokers that have proven to be reliable in the past. We have checked if they are certified by the national regulator.
Disclaimer: As things change, always do your own due diligence by checking new reviews and if the broker is still certified by the national regulator. Be aware that forex trading remains a very high-risk venture, even if the broker is legit.
Broker name |
Country |
Regulator |
CMC Markets | UK | Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), UK |
XTB Online | Europe |
International Financial Services Commission (IFSC), Belize FCA-UK Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores, Spain KNF-Poland |
Plus500 | Cyprus | Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) |
FXTM (ForexTime Ltd) | Cyprus |
CySEC FSCA-South Africa FSC-Mauritius |
London Capital Group | UK | FCA-UK |
Saxo Capital Markets | Denmark |
FCA-UK Finanstilstynet-Denmark MAS-Singapore |
IG | UK | Bermuda Monetary Authority |
Pepperstone | AU | Securities Commission of Bahamas |
Forex.com | US |
FCA-UK CFTC-US |
RoboForex | Cyprus | IFSC-Belize |
Some of the websites listed above are sponsored links. We receive a small advertising fee. This helps us to keep Scamadviser going.