FP Markets Review
A growing number of online brokers are offering a wide range of trading services and products to traders around the world today. However, every broker has their own pros and cons and finding one that is both reliable and efficient isn’t as simple and convenient as it seems. While some brokers offer excellent margins and leverage, others provide innumerable trading options, features and quick and effective execution services to their clients. Hence, it’s crucial to compare and analyze the offerings of each and every broker to determine whether their products, services and platform match with your trading requirements or not.
Remember, a broker’s website can be extremely attractive and packed with tons of features but that does not necessarily make them highly reliable and efficient. Thus, traders must collate information about the broker from a genuine and trusted source before creating an account with them. A professional and experienced team of traders can measure and analyze the broker’s performance from different viewpoints before determining whether they’re worth partnering with or not. In this review, our team of highly experienced and knowledgeable traders have measured the performance of FP Markets under different categories and parameters. Our team of expert reviewers also set up a demo account with the broker to test and analyze their trading features, offerings and services. During the review process, the traders noted a number of important points about the broker.
For instance, FP Markets has been providing a wide range of trading instruments and services to its clients for more than twelve years now. The brokerage came into existence in 2005 and is owned by First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd. based in Australia. As the premier provider of online CFD and forex brokerage services, FP Markets offers quick and hassle-free trading facilities and services to traders around the globe. Additionally, the broker provides a number of trading products such as commodities, equity, indices and futures to its clients from diverse backgrounds and industries. FP Markets is also renowned for its quick execution speed, effective trading platform, dedicated and reliable customer support services and decent leverage and attractive spreads. Here, learn more about the broker, their services, products and platform.
Trading Platforms
Trading platform is one of the first things you need to take into account when it comes to finalizing a broker for your trading activities. Typically, a broker should provide its clients with a well managed, easy to operate, reliable and convenient trading platform. At FP Markets, traders can access a wide range of trading platforms such as the MetaTrader 4, IRESS and mobile trading platforms. Each of the platforms is highly sophisticated, easy to use and offers smooth trading experience. Below discover more about the different types of trading platforms offered by the broker.
Trading Conditions
Traders must always ascertain the trading conditions offered by the broker before opening an account with them. Simply put, trading conditions are determined by the leverage, spreads and speed of execution offered by the broker. In the case of FP Markets, the broker offers tight spreads in different forex currency pairs and leverage as much as 500:1. Our review team also learnt that the broker has specified leverages for different accounts and thus traders can choose the leverage that matches their trading requirements. Below discover more about the FP Market’s leverage, spreads and speed of executing orders.
Leverage is a major component of forex trading. Expressed in terms of a ratio, leverage works well with margin, which is set by the broker. FP Markets offers 100:1 standard leverage on all their accounts. However, traders when traders choose a higher leverage, the margin needed for opening and holding a Margin Forex contract is automatically reduced. FP Markets basically has a specified leverage band for different trading accounts.
Traders can check their specified leverage by visiting the Navigator section on the broker’s trading portal, which clearly displays the leverage for their accounts under the ‘Accounts’ category. Thus, for instance, for a leverage of 200:1, traders are required to make a minimum deposit of $500 and maintain and a maximum equity balance of $100,000.
When it comes to trading, forex traders need to keep a track of their orders on a regular basis. From keeping an eye on the market movements to analyzing the technical indicators and charts, traders must take everything into account before opening or closing their trade positions. This is exactly why traders must always assess the speed at which a broker executes their trading orders before choosing one.
Typically, a broker must execute orders quickly and safely. With FP Markets, traders won’t face any issues in terms of placing and execution of orders. The broker is extremely responsive and reliable when it comes to placing and executing orders as well as transactions on behalf of their traders. In fact, they offer some of the most advanced and sophisticated trading features, which further enables clients to enjoy 100% automated trading. Traders can execute multiple orders and keep a track of each one of them as per their convenience.
Deposits and Withdrawals
It is crucial to pick a broker that offers fast and secure deposit and withdrawal methods and procedures. While, almost every forex broker accepts money readily, they create much issue when it comes to granting or speeding up the withdrawal process. In the case of FP Markets, traders are unlikely to face any problems both while depositing or withdrawing funds.
As a trader, you may require funds for covering some of your unavoidable expenses such as emergency medical bills, raising money for business and for similar other important events and incidents. Hence, it is crucial that you opt for a broker that further provides you with prompt and reliable deposit and withdrawal services. Below, find out more about their deposit and withdrawal methods and procedures.
Traders who choose to open an account with FP Markets can easily deposit money into their preferred accounts using a wide variety of deposit options or funding methods. For instance, traders can choose to deposit money either through their debit or credit cards. Additionally, traders can fund their accounts in different currencies such as AUD, USD, CAD, EUR etc. Depending upon their convenience, traders can choose to deposit money through China Union Pay, Bank Wire transfer, Bpay, Neteller and even via any other financial services provider. Besides, funds that are transferred through credit card attract a charge of around 1.8% for Australia based credit cards and around 3.18% for international credit cards. On the other hand, traders who choose to pay through China Union Pay need to pay an addition deposit charge of 1.75% in USD and RMD. Also, any transfers made via Neteller require the trader to pay a fee of around 4%. Besides, deposits that are made via Skrill attract lower charges at around 3%.
As far as withdrawals are concerned, the process is simple and convenient. The procedure for first time withdrawal as well as nominating a bank account is simple. Traders basically need to fill in their account details and provide other necessary inputs such as name, email, currency type and amount as well as last three digits of their nominated bank accounts through a form that must be duly submitted to the broker.
The speed of accepting deposits and initiating a withdrawal request is what differentiates a good broker from a bad one. When we reviewed FP Market’s performance on this front we found that the broker offers speedy and efficient deposit and withdrawal methods to its traders.
Thus, traders can initiate trading as soon as their accounts are verified and duly funded by them. Typically, deposits made via wire transfers take around one to three business days (based on the time of depositing of funds). On the other hand, deposits made via credit cards are funded instantly after the completion of the verification process. Also, the minimum balance for opening an IRESS CFD account is $1,000 AUD whereas the same for MT4 account is $200 AUD.
Withdrawals at FP Markets usually take around two days of time. However, the broker may take as many as five days for completing the withdrawal procedure. Also, traders who choose to withdraw money for the very first time must provide adequate identity proofs such as a driving license, passport or proof of age via their primary email ids. These documents must be submitted in addition to a withdrawal form. For any future withdrawals, the broker requires traders to send an email instruction at their email address ([email protected]) in addition to their account numbers as well as details of the amounts that needs to be withdrawn.
Also, FP Markets doesn’t require traders to pay any extra withdrawal fee for withdrawals made within Australia. However, traders need to pay an additional amount of twenty dollars for transfers made through bank wire and as much as 1.8% for withdrawals executed through credit cards.
Regulation
Needless to mention, your preferred forex broker should be duly regulated and must comply with the requisite forex trading regulations and standards. A regulated financial services provider is required to meet regulatory guidelines and shouldn’t manipulate the market in any which way.
Traders must understand that a broker that isn’t governed by a regulatory body cannot be relied upon. In fact, traders who opt for an unregulated broker may end up losing all their funds, as they’re not at all reliable and may elope after accepting deposits from them. While reviewing FP Markets we discovered that the broker is regulated by ASIC and holds an Australian Financial Services License.
FP Markets, operating by the name of First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd is duly regulated by the ASIC i.e. the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. The broker holds an AFS License and also follows the guidelines set by ASX (Australian Securities Exchange). As a result, the broker and its clients are required to maintain order in the market and avoid manipulative trading, which often results in huge financial distress and cases of fraud and malpractices.
In case of any breach of rules, both the ASIC and ASX can take action against the broker as well as its clients and levy penalty charges on them. Apart from this, the broker is also required to take a sustainability test (under the ASIC regulatory guidelines) for evaluating whether their products are adequate for their clients or not. This also helps them in determining whether the trader has appropriate investment experience and trading knowledge or not.
Customer Support
Customer support is yet another important aspect that must be taken into account at the time of choosing a broker. Remember, as a trader you may need to place a number of orders throughout a day and consequently you may have numerous questions regarding leverage, spreads, order placement etc. In fact, you may also have concerns related to technical forex charts, account types, withdrawal and deposit status as well as similar other technical and non-technical queries.
This is where you need the services of a prompt, dependable and easy to approach customer support team. In the case of FP Markets, you’ll notice that the broker has an extremely efficient and responsive customer support team in place. When our team of professional traders tried to contact their customer support team members, they did not face any hiccups or issues. With more than twelve years in the forex trading industry, FP Markets understands trader pain points and challenges pretty well.
This is one of the major reasons why the broker has combined an efficient platform, adequate prices, a wide range of trading products as well as a highly efficient customer support team to offer top-notch trading services to its traders. Below, discover more about the FP Markets’ customer support services.
Trading Education
Trading education is yet another significant but not as crucial as other aspects for selecting a broker. Traders need to gain adequate knowledge around forex trading before investing their money and placing orders. From in-depth information and understanding about the forex terminologies to creating different forex trading strategies as well as analyzing technical charts and trading signals, a trader must have sufficient knowledge around trading before they deposit funds into a broker’s account.
This is exactly why almost every broker is concentrating on providing their clients with sufficient inputs, materials and information around forex trading. When our professional traders reviewed FP Markets performance, we found that broker does an excellent job of offering educational materials and tutorials around forex trading. Traders can access the ‘Learn’ section on the broker’s website and garner unlimited trading information through the trading ebooks offered by them.
FP Markets also offers separate trading information and resources for intermediate, beginners and advanced traders. Additionally, the broker also offers trading platform guide and video tutorials, which further enables their clients in accessing their portal quickly and comfortably.
In addition to the trading education information and resources, FP Markets also offers trading news and updates through the News& Analysis section on its website. This section is extremely useful for traders who want to keep a track of the market news and events on a daily basis. Apart from this, the News and Analysis section also offers daily market reports, economic calendar, trading tips, webinars and news as well as commentary to traders around the globe.
To conclude, FP Markets offers transparent, quick and efficient trading services and platforms to its traders. The broker has won as many as thirty four awards for their excellent customer support services and quick executions. This also goes to show that the broker is highly dedicated and consistent when it comes to offering trading solutions and services to its clients. FP Markets is also renowned for offering advanced trading platforms, charting features, superior and fast order executions and potent trading tools.
Through FP Markets, traders can access more than ten thousand equities, shares and indices, as the broker offers quick and easy access to financial markets through a well organized and transparent DMA (Direct Market Access) model. According our review experts, the FP Markets platform is ideal for advanced traders who wish to place complex trading orders. However, even beginner and intermediate traders can take advantage of their easy to access portal that offers ECN capabilities and automated trading through its EA (Expert Advisor) feature. The broker’s accounts are duly audited and monitored by renowned auditing firm BDO Australia. FP Market also offers assistance to its clients during disputes through their Dispute Resolution services that are taken care of by FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) Limited.