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Is there a best Forex broker?

Choosing a Forex broker is the first step that you need to take before starting with actual trading and in this lecture, I will how to identify the best one.

So when you start looking for a Forex broker, you will see hundreds and thousands of them. And once you start searching in Google about best Forex brokers, then you will see ads anywhere, on your Facebook or on your Instagram, because they will know you are looking for the best Forex brokers and you will see ads anywhere.

Now, be very careful when you leave some contact details because many of the ads will ask for your email, phone number. And if someone starts calling you daily to offer you different stuff, to ask you to fund an account, to promise you they will manage your funds and give you some robots with unrealistic high returns, 99%, this is a scam broker and you just need to stop answering the phone. There are so many people being scammed from Forex brokers.

It’s like everything else around nowadays. There are trusted websites, there are websites where you order something, you buy something, but you never receive it. Right? So it is something very similar to the Forex brokers. You fund an account, but you will never be able to withdraw your money. So selecting a regulated broker is essentially important and I will attach a PDF with the regulators that you need to bear in mind.

Always go for a regulated broker

So when you choose a broker, look for the regulators, and depends on where you are. Are you in the US, in Europe, Australia, South Africa? Doesn’t matter where you are. There are different regulations.

So the more regulations the broker has, the better it is. It means that these regulatory companies are regulating the Forex brokers to make sure they follow all the rules, they give you fair trading conditions, they allow you withdrawing money into your account.

And what I always suggest to the traders is to start with a virtual account or this is a Demo account. So you can first practice, learn strategies, master the trading system that you will be using for a real account, and then start with a real account. But before you start a real account, the best thing would be to fund a small account like $100, $200, and then withdraw them.

So you will make sure that the broker you’re using is actually trusty and you know that at any moment if you need your funds, you will be able to withdraw them.

Do you need a broker actually?

Now, the next very important thing is, why do you need that broker? For what reason? What are you going to trade? Is it Forex, stocks, cryptocurrencies? For example, I use different brokers for Forex, I use different ones for stocks, and I use brokers and exchanges to trade and invest in cryptocurrencies.

And, for example, if you want to trade Forex, I guess you want to trade Forex since you are reading this lecture, then you need to decide are you going to do it manually or algorithmically.

Most of the Forex brokers, and probably, I should say all of them, allow manual trading. This is when you actually purchase with your mouse, with your finger. You execute the trades, buy and sell manually, or you do it from the phone, which I really don’t recommend for Forex trading.

I purchase cryptocurrency, stocks sometimes from the phone, from their apps when I’m outside, not able to sit in front of the computer. But when it comes to Forex trading, I wouldn’t suggest you do it from the phone. It’s just not serious to buy EURUSD or sell the USDJPY from the phone. Most people end up losing this way because they cannot see the bigger picture. They don’t see the chart, they don’t see where the price is going.

Most of the mobile apps don’t have indicators, and it’s really hard to follow a trading strategy from the phone. If you were just buying and selling randomly, alright, then you can use the phone. But if you are looking for longer-term trading, then you need to take it seriously and sit down in front of the laptop or the computer.

Best Forex brokers for trading with Expert Advisors

Now, when we trade with Expert Advisors or the so-called robots, it’s a different story because we don’t need actually to be in front of the computer. The robots are trading by themselves, they execute the trades.

And when you decide what exactly you want to trade, then you need to choose the best Forex broker that offers the appropriate trading platform. In our lectures and courses can see the MetaTrader platform, which is the most common platform for algorithmic trading. And this is where we trade with the Expert Advisors or the robots.

The MetaTrader platform should be installed on the computer. It’s very easy. With just a couple of clicks. I will show you how it works. And interestingly, the interface looks outdated. And I receive comments from other traders and students on my courses, that the video lectures are outdated because the MetaTrader looks old. Actually, this is how it looks and this is how it was in the last decade. I guess it will be the same in the next decade.

They didn’t really update the interface, the outlook, and it looks outdated compared to the stock exchanges and some of the crypto exchanges we have nowadays.

And actually, there are two versions – MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. From the official website of MetaTrader, the MQL 5 website, you can download only MetaTrader 5. This is because they want to push all the traders from MetaTrader 4 to MetaTrader 5.

But most of the traders still use MetaTrader 4, I still use Meta Trader 4. I use MetaTrader 5 just for stock trading. Because most of the brokers that offer stocks on MetaTrader, offer it on MetaTrader 5. But for Forex, I stick with MetaTrader 4 and I personally believe that they will support it much longer.

The best Forex brokers offer MetaTrader

The MetaTrader platform was developed by the Meta Quote company, which is a third-party company. Then the brokers pay to the Meta Quote company so they can offer the platform to us, the clients, the traders. And it’s super easy to install it, I will show you just in a second.

Once you download the installation file from your broker, you will see a small setup menu. All you need to do is to choose where exactly you want to install the platform.

For example, I will write down MetaTrader and you click on Next and it will start installing. So it’s really that simple to install the MetaTrader platform, with just a few clicks.

And as I said, you cannot download MetaTrader 4 from the official website. You can download it from your broker. So that’s another thing. When you are choosing the best Forex broker and you want to use MetaTrader 4, make sure to check if they offer MetaTrader 4.

And once you open a Demo account or a Live account, usually you will get an email with a download link. You will be able to download it, install it, and login into your account.

So the best Forex broker is the regulated broker, the one that fits your needs. It has the assets you want to trade. It has the platform that you need. So if you want to trade with Expert Advisors, you need a broker with MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5.

Consider which Forex broker offers the best spread and commissions

And lastly, the best thing should be a Forex broker with low costs like spread and commissions. I don’t want to go into details about any of the brokers. Because they change their trading conditions all the time. So if I tell you which are my top 3 best Forex brokers right now, in a few months’ time or by the time you are reading this lecture, it could be outdated. And these brokers might not be the best choice at this moment. But if you follow the tips that I shared with you, I’m sure you will select the best Forex broker for your needs.

If you have a hard time finding a broker, you can check out our website. We have the Brokers section where we have the trusted brokers at any moment. Basically, these are the brokers that I personally use. So you can use that page and go back to it at any moment when you’re looking for a new broker or you want to change your broker.

So you will see which are the brokers that I currently use. However, if you have a really hard time finding a broker, you can ask me, I will always assist you. Or you can read our brokers’ reviews and learn more about the brokers, before deciding to open a trading account with any of them.

But usually, I avoid recommending brokers in my lectures and courses. Because I am not connected to any of the brokers. I really don’t like promoting brokers. And this is why in most of my courses, I ask my editor usually to hide the broker’s name. Because it is a personal choice, indeed, which broker you will be using.

And that’s why I always suggest the students first to start with a Demo account and test the broker. And if they are happy with it, they can actually go for real trading at the moment you decide.

How to choose the Best Forex broker?

Now, we are going to be discussing brokers. We will be opening Demo accounts with 4 regulated brokers and I’ll show you step by step how to do this.

I’ll also share with you some of the pros and cons that I have found while trading with them and we’ll discuss some of the important things to look out for like commission, swaps, and spreads.

To keep our students updated with the best Forex brokers that we use in the Academy, we have prepared the Brokers Page, where we have listed the brokers we use at the moment.

If you are a United States resident, please keep in mind that most brokers implement the FIFO rule, which is the first in first out.

And basically, what that means is that you cannot hedge and you cannot have multiple buy and sell positions open at the same time. You would need to close one before opening another.

A few of the best Forex brokers that we use

All the content below and te videos are part of the Forex Trading for Beginners course + 40 Expert Advisors

We are going to look at IG as a broker. One of the pros with IG is that they are one of the few brokers that accept US clients when it comes to CFD and Stock trading. They were established in 1974. Some of the other pros are that they have a very low spread on most of their currencies and they don’t charge a commission on a lot of their currency pairs as well.

Creating MT4 Demo account

One of the drawbacks that I found is that when you open a Demo account, you have a set amount of 10 000 U.S. Dollars and set leverage of 1:200. You cannot change that. That is what you have when you open a Demo account. And their support isn’t as good as some of the other brokers that I’ve used.

I have called them once or twice trying to get through to one of their support people but I wasn’t able to get through. And when I tried their live support, their live chat support, it didn’t work. So when I am talking about te best Forex broker I want to give you the CONs with the brokers as well.

So how do we go about opening a Demo account with IG?

The first thing we will do is going to their website, which is ig.com. Once we put that in, it will redirect us to the local country website. From there, we’re going to go to Trading platforms then MetaTrader4.

We click on Create MT4 Demo account, click on it again, and then we fill in our details.

And then you can select if you’d like to receive information from them by email. I’m going to click on No and then we click on Sign Up for your Demo.

Installing MT4 Demo account

You’ll get to a confirmation page saying that you’ve successfully signed up for the MT4 Demo and they will send you an email with instructions on how to install and set up an account.

Then we receive an email from them.

So are IG the best Forex broker? I will leave it to you to decide after you read the whole post.

It is a little bit different from some of the other brokers that we’ve signed up with. In this case, we don’t get an account number and a password straight away. What we need to do is to first just run through these steps that are in the email.

So the first thing we need to do is to download and install the MT4 platform.

Once we’ve done that, we will create an account within Meta Trader 4. We’re going to click on Download and install MT4, it comes up with the file and we’re just going to click on Save File and then that gets saved into our default downloads directory.

From there we launch the program and we run through the steps of installing the Meta Trader 4 platform. So the first thing we do is click on Settings. I’m going to change the default install directory and I’m going to put it in my route. I’m going to call it IG_MT4_Demo1.

We will go with IG Demo: the best Forex broker is the one that offers Demo account

You can put it anywhere you want and call it anything that you like. This is just the system that I use. When I look in my folders, I know exactly which platform I am looking at and what I am using it for. I’m going to unselect Open MQL5 community website and we’re going to click Next, and that’s it.

And I would just wait for it to install.

Once it’s finished, we’re going to click on Finish and the platform will launch. So once the platform launches, you’ll see that you have two services that you can choose from. We’re going to obviously go with IG Demo and we’re going to click next.

We don’t have an account, as I said earlier.

So what we’re going to do is we’re going to select new Demo account and we’re going to click Next.

We’re going to put in our details here as seen below. Mine already is auto-filled. And then you’re going to have to click on I agree to subscribe to your newsletters and then you click Next.

Very quickly, you get your login details. So your login number and your login password, and then we click Finish.

Now, what you see is underneath here we have a balance of 10 000 US dollars and our leverage is 1220.

In order to see what our fees and commissions are going to be, what we are going to do is in the Market Watch window, we’re going to right-click on Ask. We’re going to select Spread. When looking for the best Forex broker you need to keep an eye on the spreads.

Historical data

Then, as you’ll see below, there’s another column that has appeared here on the right and with the EURUSD, which is the one that we’re going to be using for this course, it is a spread of 9.

It’s floating. So it will change slightly, but it kind of goes between about 6 and 9 points. That is a good spread for any of my best Forex brokers.

In order to see what the commission is, all we’re going to do is to click on either the Buy or the Sell in the OneClick Trading.

We click once and then we just click on Buy.

Then we can look in the terminal window.

And then what you see is underneath here, we have executed an order, full 1 lot and the commission is 0.

So then what we know that our spread is around 9 and our commission is 0. We’ll just close this order for now. And that’s it, guys.

Now we have a working Demo account with IG and we can start to pull historical data, export that historical data into EA Studio, generate our strategies, generate our Expert Advisors, and then put them back into the platform to start to test them.

JFD broker

We will now look at JFD as a broker. I’m going to run through some of the PROs and CONs that I have found while using them as my best Forex broker. And I’m going to show you how to open a Demo account. So one of the advantages of using JFD Bank is that they’re a very well known broker. They’ve been around for a long time.

They offer many different types of platforms and it’s very easy to open a Demo account. Some of the drawbacks or the CONs that I found is that once you’ve opened a Demo account, you cannot log in and change your balance. So if your EAs or your trades go against you, you cannot add additional funds to your account.

In other words, you don’t get a profile when you open a Demo account and the leverages are set. You cannot change your leverage. Having said that, it is still definitely one of my favorite brokers and one that I use probably 80% of the time that I trade.

So in order to open a Demo account, the first thing we’re going to do to go to their website, which is jfdbank.com, and click on Try Free Demo.

So what we’re going to do is to select the Demo trading account at the top of the account. We’re going to change this to Meta Trader 4 (MT4).

You should have the same amount across all brokers being tested

Then all you need to do is put in your details, which is very quick and very easy. Country of residence, I’m in South Africa. Account currency- I always use USD.

But generally speaking, USD is the most popular and it’s the one that I prefer to deposit an amount. Now here, you can choose the amount, but you cannot put in any amount that you want. You have to select one of these that is pre-programmed.

So it runs from $500 and it changes in increments or increases in increments all the way to $5 000 000. I’m going to put it at 10 000 because that’s the same amount that I always start with. And when we are generating and testing our EAs and later analyzing them, you’ll see why it is quite important to have the same amount across all the brokers that you are testing.

So I select 10 000, you’re going to click on I hereby agree to the company’s terms and conditions and privacy policy. And then if you want to receive news and latest newsletters and updates, etc, you can select this. I’m not going to for now. So I’ve done all that and we press register.

Click the activation link

Then it’ll bring you to this page where it says welcome and the next steps that you need to take. And it tells you that you will shortly be receiving an email with an activation link. So we’re going to get the first email.

We’re going to click on the activation link and then we’ll get a second email with our account details. So here’s the first email. As you can see, it says, Dear Mr. Vardy, thank you for registering a Demo account with JFD. To complete the registration process, please click on the activation link below.

This will verify that you have carried out the registration yourself. So all you do is just click on the activation link,

and then it brings you to this page and it says, Thank you for registering. You have successfully completed the registration process and will shortly be receiving a second email with information regarding what happened next.

So all we do now is sit and we wait for the second email. When that comes, we’ll have all of the information that we need in order to open a Demo account. Here’s the second email. As you can see, it just says welcome to JFD, and thank you for selecting us as a broker.

The leverages are set with JFD

There’s a bit of information there. Then the first thing you can do is you can download the Meta Trader 4 platform from JFD and once it’s downloaded and installed, we are going to use these details here to login.

That’s about it, it’s that easy to open a Demo account with JFD which makes it one of my best Forex broker.

There are just one or two things that I want to mention when it comes to JFD. The first is leverage. Now, with some brokers, you can actually select the leverage that you want to trade with, whether it be on a Demo or a Live account.

But with JFD, the leverages are set. So if you want to see what they are, it’s really very easy. Just get down to the bottom of the website of the home page. You’re going to go to Account Specifications at the bottom.

We’re going to select Forex and Meta Trader 4.

What you can see below is that there’s a table and there’s a few pages with all the various financial instruments or assets.

So, for example, with the AUDCAD, there’s 5% and then in brackets is 2%.

Understanding the leverage will help you to find your best Forex broker.

Basically, what that means is if you’re an EU resident or if you’re a European citizen, you’re going to look at the number that is not in brackets. If you live outside of the European Union or you’re not a European citizen, you’re going to look at the number that’s in brackets.

Now, to understand the leverage, basically, all you need to do is just take 100 and divide it by this number. So in this example, it is 5% and 100 divided by 5 is 20. So your leverage will be 1:20. However, again, if you’re not a European citizen, your leverage or your margin is 2%. 100 divided by 2 is 50.

So your leverage will be 1:50. It does change according to the asset. So, for example, CHFJPY, if you’re a European citizen, it’s 3.33%. So your leverage will be 1:33. But if you’re a non-EU resident, it is 1%. 100 divided by 1 is 100.

So your leverage is going to be 1:100. It is quite important to understand, it is quite important to know. As I said, on some of the other brokers you can choose the leverage across any of the assets. On JFD you’re stuck with the leverage that you are given.

You can create as many Demo accounts as you possibly wish. The best Forex broker is that one that gives you no limitations

The other thing is you can open as many Demo accounts as you want to. There are no limits on that. You can open a whole bunch of Demo accounts and then trade different assets or different groups of EAs on them to test. And there is no time limit, which is also fantastic.

So you can put your EAs on a Demo account and you can run it for months or even years and just monitor the performance of your EAs. Also, it’s very cool with JFD Bank is we’ll just look at one of their platforms. So as you can see, this is one of my Demo platforms and this is the EURUSD.

Now, if we go to the top, at the Market Watch, you’ll see that our spread is very small. It’s between 3 and like 5 points.

And that’s really good. However, you are going to pay a commission and that is $6 per lot because we’re only trading 0.1 lot.

Our commission is 60 cents. That’s US cents. So it will change according to the lot size, and it is proportionate to the lot size that you trade. But you can always just take 1 lot, which will be $6 and just divide it by whatever your lot size is just to understand what the commission is.

DukaScopy: One of the best Forex brokers around

I will now show you how to open a Demo account with DukaScopy and I’m going to share with you some of the advantages and disadvantages that I have found while using them as my broker. DukaScopy, like JFD, is also a very well known broker, it’s been around for a long time.

They’re based in Switzerland and they offer different types of trading on different assets across different platforms. The advantages of DukaScopy is that they have nice tight spreads, very easy to open a Demo account, although when you open a Demo account it is for 14 days.

If you email their support team and request an extension, they will extend that indefinitely for you. And the other great thing about DukaScopy is that the historical data on our website, on the Historical Data App, we get from DukaScopy. So it pulls it directly from DukaScopy.

If you need live support, the Dukascopy might be your best Forex broker

So a huge amount of historical data is available to you. Let’s begin to open a Demo account. Very simple. All you do is you go to dukascopy.com, and then you go to the tab here – Open Demo FX Account and you click on that.

And again, all we do is we just fill in our details. Here we’re going to choose MT4, we unselect JForex. We are not going to use the default Demo account settings.

So we are going to unselect that. And for the purposes of this demonstration, I’m going to unselect subscribe to Dukascopy Forex Overview, and then we go to the next step.

Like with JFD, we’re going to select our currency as USD and our balance of 10 000.

Simply, creating a Demo account brings us to this page here. Success. Thank you for registering Demo account.

Then they will email you your account details. Below you will see the email that we got from DukasCopy. It has our login details. Our account number and the password and the server that we’re going to be connecting to where we install Meta Trader4.

The Historical Data App uses the data from Dukascopy

Having reliable Historical data makes Dukascopy one of my best Forex bbroker.

And there’s a link to download Meta Trader 4. Very easy. We’re going to click on the link. We download Meta Trader and then we log in using these details that we have received from them.

That’s about it. That’s how quick and easy it is to open a demo account with DukaScopy, please keep a few things in mind. The first thing is that the leverage that you will get on a Demo account will be 1:100 that’s it. You cannot change that.

You can email the support and ask them to change it. But as a default, you get 1:100. And the other thing you need to be aware of is on the platform. Again, a very nice tight spread, ranging between 3 and 4 points. Commission slightly higher than JFD. On JFD, it was $6 per lot.

That’s about it when it comes to DukaScopy. Like I said, very quick and very easy. And we have a huge amount of historical data that we can get from them. But we get it from the Historical Data App on the website.

FXTM

Finally, we’re going to be looking at FXTM, I’m going to share with you some of the pros and cons that I’ve come across while trading with them. I’m going to show you how to open a Demo account. So the pros when it comes to FXTM, is that I have one of the best websites that I’ve ever used when it comes to opening Demo accounts or making any changes that you want on your Demo account as well as live.

Very easy to register and open a Demo account. And once you have registered, you can open up multiple Demo accounts and you can make changes to those Demo accounts, so you can change your leverage. You can add funds, you can delete accounts, you can create new accounts, different types of accounts and just a great website to work with.

Some of the cons is that the historical data isn’t as big as some of the other brokers, although it is more than enough to generate strategies using EA Studio.

And the spreads are a little bit higher than some of the other brokers, but they don’t charge a commission on many of their assets that you trade.

So all in all, I would say they are a good broker. However, as with all of the others, please do not take this as a recommendation. My advice to you, as always, is to try it out for yourself. And if you are happy, continue.

Opening an account with one of the best Forex brokers out there.

So let’s open a Demo account. How we do that is very easy. We go to their website, which is forextime.com. From there we’re going to click on Open Account at the top.

We have to fill in some of our details. So let’s quickly run through this. We’ll just put in our details.

Phone number, email address, it is important to have all of this correct because you will be receiving PIN numbers from them that you’ll need to activate your account, quickly, generate a password, and that’s it. Then we click Send Pin.

Now, we just wait a few seconds. We wait for the SMS to come or the text to come through our PIN number. Just put the PIN number in that we received and click on Register now. Easy as that.

It says you are registered, now here it asks you to fill in a whole lot of details. You don’t have to do this right away. So we’ll just close that. Are you sure? Yes, I’m sure.

So then we come to their website. As I said, really easy website to navigate.

Account leverage

The first thing we do is on the left in the navigation pane, we are going to click on the arrow next to my accounts, and then we’re going to say open new account.

And as seen below, you can choose different types of account that you want.

We’re going to open a demo account. So we’re going to go to the last one and we’re going to select that.

And then what we’re going to do here is to select the top of the account. For the purposes of this lecture, we’re going to go with a standard MT4 account.

Account currency, we’re going to keep at USD. Account leverage, I wouldn’t recommend having it anything higher than 1:100, maximum 1:200 when you are a beginner trader, because while having higher leverage when you’re having good trades will increase your profits, when you have losses, it will increase the losses proportionately.

So we’re going to go with 1:100. We’ll just create a password. That’s easy initial balance. We’re going to start with 10 000. And then we click on Open account.

Within seconds, we have a Demo account open. Relative that is, it’ll give you all of your details, your account number, your trading password, the type of account, and the server that you need to connect to when you install Meta Trader 4 which we will run through in a later lecture.

Start trading on a Demo account

You also have a link here to download the platform. You will need the platform. So what we’ll do is to click on that.

We’re going to select Meta Trader 4 Trading Terminal for PC and we click on Download, Save the File and then it’ll go into our download location.

Now, going back to our Demo account, we are going to Accounts, Accounts overview, and there is our Demo account at the bottom here.

So like I was saying from here, it’s very easy to change things in your accounts. So if you click on the arrow on the right, you have a whole bunch of options.

Change leverage, change trading password, your account details, launch the web trader, and delete the account.

So you can have a look at some of those when you open your Demo account. I’ll just give you a better understanding of the website and some of the options that you have.

It really is that easy to open a Demo account with Forex Time. As mentioned in the beginning, there are pros and cons. As always, my advice to you is to open a Demo account if you’re interested, have a look at it to trade with it, generate EAs, test EAs on the platform, compare to some of the other brokers, and then decide if this is the right broker for you or not.

Thanks for reading. I hope this lecture will help you to find the best Forex broker for your needs. I will see you in another lecture.

In this HotForex Review, we will take a look at the broker’s regulations, their trading assets, fees, and the HotForex MT4 platform. We will also dive deeply into the different account types at HotForex broker and will try to make it clear who they are suitable for.

HotForex and HF Markets are unified brand names of the HF Markets Group, which provides reliable, award-winning services to clients all over the world.

HotForex is a multinational company that has been in the field since 2010. Moreover, the company currently has over 2.5 million live trading accounts, and over 200 employees spread worldwide.

The company also offers its live trading services in 27 languages and has successfully taken advantage of the explosive growth in online Forex trading. This explosive growth has helped the company to increase its market share on an international scale.

HotForex is regulated in six different countries, and it claims that it gives priority to transparency and security above all else.

HotForex Review – Regulations & Trading Assets

According to the company, traders can choose from +1000 different assets, and all the internal processes are implemented with the help of modern technological advancements.

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According to the company, the topmost asset is their traders, and they are extremely important to the operation. This is why the company focuses on offering an excellent trading environment for its traders.

The spread starts at 1 pip without commission and 0 pips with a commission. This offers a versatile trading environment to the traders, and the company employs a transparent rollover policy offering positive swap rates that are easily credited to traders’ accounts. All the client funds are kept safe and secure with the help of major banks worldwide.

If you wish to find a broker with a tighter spread, please, have a look at the Recommended Brokers we have on the website.

The customers have free access to a wide variety of trading tools that help them make well-informed decisions for their investments. These tools include free VPS hosting for automated trading solutions, multiple account types for multiple trading options, and expert advice for trading.

HotForex also offers amazing brokerage services, and the traders can participate in weekly webinars and QA sessions with the experts of the industry. This helps them lay a solid foundation for their trading accounts. Moreover, the clients can also get negative balance protection and tailored solutions to earn additional income with live trading.

HotForex Fees

This HotForex review aims to explore the company’s different aspects to offer a better understanding of its internal structure and processes. Firstly, HotForex has no hidden charges. The company only generates its fees and revenue from the different types of spreads and commissions offered to the traders.

If you are familiar with live trading, you must understand that spread means the difference in bid and ask prices.

HotForex currently offers a spread as low as 0.1 without commission and 0.0 with the commission. The 0.1 spread is only usable for premium accounts, and there is no commission or fees associated with this type of spread.

However, if the traders choose to go with a 0.0 spread, they will have to pay a little commission on their investment. The company also charges fees on indices at a rate of USD 1 per lot or on CFD stocks at 0.10% of the total trading value.

One amazing thing about Hot Forex is that it reimburses its traders for any deposit fees they have had to face with their payment provider or bank transfer. This shows that the company cares for its traders and does not believe in any hidden charges.

HotForex Demo Account Review

Now we will show you how to register for a Demo Account at HotForex.

The Demo Account is a virtual account where the broker allows us to practice with virtual money.

Usually, we use Demo Accounts when we are testing many Expert Advisors. By following the results of the Robots, we decide which ones we will put on a Live Trading Account at HotForex.

And if you are a beginner or you are testing a new system, a new strategy for the 1st time, you better do it first on the HotForex Demo Account. So you’re not risking real money for the test and you can have an actual simulation of the trading. Because having a Demo Account is the very same thing as having a Live Account. But this is not real money.

And if something goes wrong, the system that you’re testing is losing or it’s not your type of trading, you can just restart or open a new demo account.

How do you open a new account with HotForex?

Let’s start by visiting the website of HotForex. On the right side, you can see the option Demo, which will bring you to a page where you can select is you are a new client or an existing client.

In this HotForex broker review, we will go first with the “New clients” option.

After that, you will see a form where you need to enter your country, phone, name, email, and what will be your account base currency.

After you register, you will receive an email with the ID and the password. Then you will be ready to go for your HotForex Demo Account.

If you click on Open Live Account on the top, you will see pretty much the same form. But after you register with HotForex, you will be required to send some more documents like proof of address, ID and you will get an email with further instructions. And the type of documents you will need to send depends on where you are located.

The HotForex MetaTrader 4 & 5 platforms

Now, let’s go back to HotForex.com and click on Platforms. You will see that on the left we have all HotForex MT4 platforms and then, we have all HotForex MT5 platforms.

At the Academy, we still prefer to use the MetaTrader 4 platform because it’s more suitable for algorithmic trading. You can select Windows or Mac or you can just click on HotForex MT4 for Desktop and that’s the platform we will show you in this review.

And then below again, we have the option to choose for Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Now, when we do algorithmic trading, it is very important to be on the computer. Not trading from the phone.

There are apps for MetaTrader, as you see with HotForex as well for the phone, for the tablet. But when you use Expert Advisors and Robots, then you need to use your computer or laptop and install the MetaTrader platform.

HotForex MetaTrader 4 installation folder

Now if you open the .exe file, which is the HotForex MT4 installation file, you will see how it looks like.

In a few clicks, you can install the HotForex MetaTrader 4 platform. You can go to Settings actually and predefine the installation folder.

Using different accounts

The Settings are very important when you want to install 2, 3, or more platforms and use different accounts.

From there we can just change the name or we can write down Demo 1. Or if you’re using a Live Account, you can just write down Live Account, and then it will install a new version of HotForex MetaTrader 4.

So for example, right now we have just installed HotForex MetaTrader 4 and we will be using it for the purpose of the review.

But if we want to install one more platform on that computer, then we could just change the name or change the location and this will install a platform. This is very useful if you want to have 2 Demo Accounts or 1 Demo and 1 Live Account.

Switching from HotForex demo account to live account

If you want to have different accounts to test Expert Advisors, you cannot switch from one account to another.

So if you have a HotForex Demo Account and you have a Live Account on the one and the same platform and you switch from Demo to Live, you will disable the Robots that are on your HotForex Demo Account.

And the same thing with your Live Account. If you are in your HotForex Live Account and you switch to your Demo Account, then you will disable the Robots that are on your Live Account.

This is why if you want to have different accounts at HotForex, you need to have different MetaTrader platforms. This is very, very important in algorithmic trading.

So after you are ready, you just click on Next and this will start the HotForex MT4 installation. That’s it – 2 clicks and there is one more window that pops up and you click on Finish and you will see the HotForex MetaTrader 4 platform installed on your computer.

Logging in the HotForex account

So once you install HotForex MT4, all you need to do is go to File and click on Login to Trade Account.

A small box will appear where you need to type in your login details and the password that you received previously in the email from HotForex.

Then click on login and you will be logged in.

You need to see the green bars in the bottom right-hand corner, which will identify that you’re connected to the HotForex trading server.

If you see red here, it means you’re not connected to the server and probably you have mistaken your username or password. But if it’s green and if you see the Market Watch with all the prices changing and moving, then it means you are connected and you are ready to practice trading.

So this is how easy it is to open a Demo Account and to install the HotForex MetaTrader 4 platform.

HotForex MT4 and MT5 Platforms

If you are interested in learning more about the different swap rates or rollover rates, you can head over to the HotForex MT4 & MT5 trading platforms to get a better understanding of these rates. The HotForex MT4 & MT5 will offer you a detailed breakdown of the different swap rates or rollover rates for different types of live trading accounts.

The first thing you will have to do is right-click on the desired symbol in the HotForex MT4 & MT5 platforms and go over to the “market watch” window to select “symbols”. Once you have selected this “symbols” window on the HotForex MT4 & MT5 platforms, you can then select your desired currency and check the “properties” on the right-hand side of the screen.

You will have to scroll down on this property’s screen until you see the “swap long” or “swap short” option. This will tell you the different swap rates associated with your account and other premium accounts for trading.

HotForex MetaTrader 4 Tutorial

Now, we will tell you more about HotForex MT 4 platform and what are the costs. We will also review the pros of using this platform, especially when you do algorithmic trading. And I will go through the most important things that you need to know so you can feel more comfortable when trading with Expert Advisors.

Time frames

So on the left side, you have the Market Watch with the Bid and the Ask price.

This is from where you can select the assets you want to trade. If you don’t see all the assets, you can right-click and check Show All.

This will display some more assets depending on the broker you’re using.

And if you want to open a new chart, you just click on the symbol and go to Chart Window.

So right here we have already opened 2 charts for Bitcoin and we have some more for Forex which was opened by default when we installed the HotForex MetaTrader 4 platform.

We will remove those. And we have 1 chart for Bitcoin on the hourly timeframe and the other one we can change, for example, to the M15 timeframe.

Types of charts

We have actually 3 types of charts. We have bars, we have candlesticks, and we have a line chart.

The most popular is candlesticks.

So when we are on M15, this means that 1 candlestick or 1 bar represents 15 minutes of a time. The chart is a representation of the price which we have on the right side and the time which we have below the chart. Where these 2 meet, we have the candlesticks.

And if we are on an hourly chart, then 1 candlestick or 1 bar represents a 1-hour time frame. And for each candlestick, for each bar, we have the opening of the bar, we have the closing of the bar, the highest point, and the lowest point.

Positive bars and negative bars

So in this case, the negative bar is represented with white color and the positive is with black color.

So if we put the mouse on the closing of the bar, you can see exactly what are the values for the open, high, low, and close.

And what happens after the bar closes, a new bar opens. So we have the closing of that bar and then the new bar opens. The price goes up and down. It closes at one level.

And because the closing was higher than the opening, we have a positive bar that is fulfilled with black and all of these colors you can change from Properties.

And if you go to Colors, you can change what you want to see on your chart.

The price always matter

Now, we are not touching this because when trading with Expert Advisors, it really doesn’t matter what you see on the chart. It doesn’t matter if you are on a candlestick chart, on the bar chart, or what are the colors.

We don’t put any Indicators. Nothing over the chart. We just wanted to give you a brief idea of what we see on the chart as price, because at the end of the day, the price always matters. And that’s the most important thing that is on the chart.

But for trading and strategies and Expert Advisors, we use different Indicators. So if we go to Insert, Indicators and click randomly on any of those, let’s select the trend Indicator called Bollinger Bands, which is a very popular Indicator in algorithmic trading.

You will see 3 lines that are around the price. But we are not going into Indicators.

Creating strategies

We are not going to explain any complicated stuff because you really don’t need to know it. And we will go to Indicators List.

Then we will remove it.

One more time, when trading with Expert Advisors or with Robots, you don’t need to place anything over the chart. The Indicators, the trading rules, will be inside the Robots.

Then on the left, below the Market Watch, we have the Navigator.

This is where we have the accounts. As we said, you can have many accounts with HotForex broker, but if you want to test Expert Advisors on different accounts, you need to install different trading platforms as well.

The Expert Advisors

Below, we have the Indicators. Very similar if you want to insert them from Indicators or you will insert them from the Navigator, just double click on it and it will be over the chart. For example, the Accumulation Indicator is displayed below the price, not over the chart.

So let me remove it. And then we have some scripts that are useful for algorithmic trading and different purposes. But the most important is Expert Advisors. And we have an Expert Advisor for Bitcoin.

Do you want to know how we create trading strategies, what rules do we use, and how we test them even before putting the strategies in a Demo Account? Enroll in the Bitcoin Algorithmic Trading course to learn how we create Robots. Moreover, you will receive 99 new Expert Advisors every month.

Below the Navigator, we have the Terminal where we see our balance or our account, the equity, and the margin.

Leverage

So basically, the margin is how much free money we have in the account, how much we have blocked from the account, and how much free margin we have in the account. So when we start opening positions, some of this amount will be blocked.

And this depends on the leverage you’re using. For example, in Europe, we have the ESMA regulation since 2018 and we cannot have leverage more than 2 to 1 for the Cryptocurrencies, which means that if we want to Buy a whole Bitcoin, we will need at least to have somewhere about $10 000. It depends on what is the price of Bitcoin is at the moment.

But the leverage for the beginners with simple words is the amount of money that the broker borrowed the trader to use for trading.

So if you have $5,000 in your account and you use leverage 2 to 1, then you will be able to Buy with a maximum of $10,000. If we use leverage 100 to 1, then we will be able to Buy 100 times more from what we have in the account. The leverage is very useful.

Trade small

You should use the leverage very carefully. You don’t Buy with all of the money in the account because if you use high leverage and you open a position with all of the money, then it is very likely that you will blow your account.

Of course, you can make very quick profits, but that probably will be more of lucky trading. And at the same time, as we said, it is very likely that you will just lose everything in the account.

So take it easy with the leverage. It varies on where you live and what type of broker you use. But it is always very important to trade small pieces from your amount so you are not risking the whole capital in a few trades. And this is how usually beginner traders lose their money in the 1st month of their trading.

This is a brief review of the HotForex MetaTrader 4 platform. However, if you just play around with it, you will see that it is very easy to use, especially for algorithmic trading. In just a few clicks you put the Expert Advisor on the chart and make them start trading for you.

HotForex Review – Trading Options

As already mentioned in this HotForex review, its platform allows traders to invest in over 1000 different trading options and assets. This allows traders to enjoy different options to minimize the risk as much as possible.

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The most popular choices at Hot Forex include CFDs on:

• Cryptocurrencies
• Energies
• Commodities
• Rare Metals
• Company Shares
• Indices
• ETFs and DMA Stocks
• Bonds

What Are the Different Account Types at HotForex?

This HotForex broker review aims to explore all the different aspects of HotForex that may be useful to interested traders. One of the most important elements of understanding this Hot Forex broker review is understanding the different kinds of accounts available to the users.

While conducting this HotForex broker review, our team understood the different types of user accounts available for the traders. There are six different account types available to live traders and interested traders at HotForex. However, there are some regions where the company offers fewer account types.

The different account types come with different minimum deposit rates, spread options, and commission fees. Let’s explore the different account types in our Hot Forex broker review.

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What Is the Premium Account? Who Uses This Account?

The first type of account you should know about is the Premium account. It is one of the most highly used accounts at HotForex.

During our Hot Forex broker review, we found out that this account is most commonly preferred by new traders or professional traders who have been in the field for over a few months.

Additionally, we also found out that this type of account is most popular among traders with account balances below 5000 British pounds or US dollars. This account is famous for offering an amazing trading experience and a low minimum deposit of $100.

This most positive selling point of this account is the low deposit rate as it helps different traders lay down a strong foundation before moving on to other options.

What Is the Zero Spread Account? What Are the Benefits?

In our HotForex review, we also reviewed the zero spread account for traders. The traders get to enjoy as low as 0.0 pips but have to pay commission. Moreover, the minimum deposit also starts at USD 200.

Here are the different elements you should know before choosing this account for yourself:

• Raw Spreads with 0 Markup
• Low Costs for International Markets
• Low Commissions
• Super tight Spreads
• Minimum Deposit of USD 200

What Is the HFcopy Account?

Next up in our HotForex review is the HFcopy account. This account allows professional traders to help out amateur traders by offering tailored strategies for investments.

The professional traders can earn their income on the fees charged to their followers. The followers have to pay for the strategy, but they are guaranteed higher chances of success.

The maximum fee is 35%, and the minimum deposit for a strategy provider is USD 1000. The minimum deposit for followers is USD 300. The minimum spreads begin from one pip. The maximum total trade size is 60 standard lots per position, and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lot.

The traders can also enjoy a trade size increment of 0.01 with a stop out level at 80%. This kind of account also offers you the option of telephone trading and a personal account manager. This personal account manager will help you take care of your different investment options. The maximum number of followers you can have is 400.

What Is the Islamic Account Type? What Makes It Different?

This account is the same as a Premium account or Zero spread account. However, one of the major differences of this account is that it follows Islamic law and is not a swap account. The users get to enjoy a swap-free trading experience.

What Is the Micro Account for HotForex?

This account is also perfect for new users and potential traders who have a low balance and want to enjoy a minimum deposit of USD 5. However, in our HotForex broker review, it is rarely used as the Premium account is also an excellent option for traders but with a minimum deposit of USD 100. The majority of new traders go for the Premium account as it offers more benefits.

HotForex Free Tools for Traders

As already mentioned, HotForex account users get access to a wide variety of free trading tools that help them make the right decision and earn a secondary income source. During our HotForex broker review, we found out that these tools are designed to enhance their trading experience and help them find the best trading opportunities depending upon their financial status and current balance.

Moreover, these tools also help understand the market in a better way and allow the different traders to enjoy the maximum potential of HotForex. If you head over to the “tools” section of the HotForex website, you will see hundreds of different in-house tools or third-party tools available for traders at no additional cost.

All of these tools have service-specific purposes for different users and help the traders make the best possible decisions. Let’s take a look at some of the best tools we found during our HotForex review.

How Does the Premium Trader Tools Pack Help Traders?

During our HotForex review, we found out that the most commonly used tools are the premium trader tools. This package is filled with the different tools that help you enhance your trading experience and allow you to take a quick look at the Forex market to see how you can enjoy the different trading options according to your budget.

This is an in-house package from HotForex that offers a wide variety of trading tools at your fingertips. You can use these tools to get a basic overview of the ongoing trends in the HotForex market, and you can also see what options are going at the top to invest your money in the right place at the right time.

What Is the Benefit of Using the Autochartist Tool at HotForex?

This is not an in-house tool but a third-party scanner tool that helps you identify the different patterns and trends available in the market right now to help you make the right decisions for your investment and trading opportunities. It can analyze the market by itself and offer you the topmost patterns currently in trend and can help you bring in the most revenue with your budget.

If you are using the HotForex MT4 platform or MT5 platform, you will get this for free, and you will be able to use this to analyses and understand the market more efficiently. It is an automated pattern identification tool that can help traders with different account types to understand the ongoing patterns before investing their money.

Here are the topmost benefits of using this tool for yourself:

• Identification of Three Types of Patterns: Chart Patterns, Fibonacci Patterns, And Key Level Patterns
• Available 24 Hours A Day
• Easily Understand and View Different Opportunities in The Market
• Time Efficiency with Automated Scanning Abilities for Traceable Patterns
• Multi-Language Email Market Reports and Alerts
• Customizable Filter And Refinement Options for Custom Watch List
• Volatility Analysis
• Useful Insight into Instrument Movements
• The First Market Scanner for Hotforex MT4 Platform
• Easy to Use

What Is VPS Hosting and How Does It Help the Traders?

This is a must-have tool for all beginners and professional traders looking to make the best of their HotForex account. If you are also interested in deploying this tool and taking care of your trading operations throughout the day, VPS hosting is the perfect option for you.

The specialized servers help you take care of your trading operations and requirements around the clock, and you will get to enjoy the best out of your HotForex account with 24/7 operations. There are three different types of server options for users.

In this HotForex review you will find the topmost benefits of using VPS hosting for yourself:

• 24-Hour Trading
• Reduced Latency
• Minimize Downtime
• Compatible with All EAs
• Password Protected Connections
• Global Access
• Easy Installation
• Easy to Use Interface
• Smooth Running

What is HFcopy and How to Make the Best of This Tool?

If you think you have gained enough experience to become a strategy provider for new investors and traders, the HFcopy tool is here for you. This tool allows you to use your trading experience to develop tailored strategies for new investors and traders. It allows you to charge a fee for your services.

Moreover, this tool is also perfect if you are a new trader, and you want somebody to help you with coming up with the most powerful strategy depending on your budget and requirements. This tool automates the entire process and connects successful traders with beginners.

It allows different people to connect minds and share their knowledge of the market to get the best out of their hotforex experience. New traders will be able to enjoy innovative trading solutions from experienced traders, and they will also be able to get refined results with shared knowledge.

This also allows successful traders to generate a secondary revenue source other than their own trading experience and opportunities. They can create different strategies for new users and generate more capital for their personal investment options. This is an automated trading tool with mutual returns for both leaders and followers..

HotForex mobile application – HF APP

HF app allows traders to have constant control over their account and stay up-to-date with everything forex, on the go. Feature-packed and with an easy navigation HF app is the essential Forex app for traders who want to keep up to date on the markets, plan their trades and keep an eye on performance from anywhere. Some of the features of HF App are:

• Direct access to a personal account
• Deposits, withdrawals, and transfers on the move
• Daily market analysis and live quotes
• Economic Calendar
• Trading Calculator

Can traders take advantage of HotForex bonuses?

HotForex offers three types of bonuses:

• 100% Supercharged Bonus: it is automatically calculated and credited and can be either traded or withdrawn.
• 100% Credit Bonus: it increases the account leverage and can be withdrawn if traders meet volume requirements
• 30% Rescue Bonus: it is intended to protect accounts from drawdown periods.

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HotForex Review – Deposits and Withdrawals

HotForex currently allows different options for deposits and withdrawal, such as:

• Bank Transfers
• Wire Transfer
• Credit Cards
• Debit Cards
• Skrill
• Neteller
• Bitcoin

There are no maximum deposit limitations for wire transfers or bank transfers. However, there is a limit per transaction of USD 10,000 when you use credit or debit cards and other online payment methods.

Most deposit options are also withdrawal options and both AML regulations apply. The minimum withdrawal amount is USD 100 for wire transfers and USD 5 for most of the other options available. Withdrawals for most online payment methods are processed instantly whereas for cards and wire transfers it may take 2 to 5 business days to see the amount in your account.

One of the best features of using HotForex for your trading experience is that it does not apply any deposit fees You do not have to worry about paying any additional charges or transaction fees on your trading amounts this way.

What Are the Frequently Asked Questions for HotForex (FAQs)?

Where Is HotForex from?

Hotforex is an international brokerage firm, and it is registered in multiple countries. It currently operates from the EU, the UK, the UAE, South Africa, and other countries.

How Does Hot Forex Generate Its Revenue?

HotForex makes money from the commission and spreads across different account types. However, if the users try to go for VPS hosting services, HotForex can also charge money if the users do not meet the minimum deposit requirements, but they still want to use this option.

Is HotForex Regulated?

Yes HotForex is regulated by different authorities all over the world, such as:

• The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
• The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)
• The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa
• The Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA)
• The Financial Services Commission of the Republic of Mauritius (FSC)

Final Words

During this HotForex review, we found out that HotForex caters to the needs of different traders from all over the world, and it is truly amazing for beginners and professionals alike. The ease of investing money, depositing funds, using tools, and understanding the market patterns helps HotForex stand taller than other trading platforms in the market.

HotForex is truly a remarkable international brokerage firm that is not only registered and regulated in different countries, but it is also among the best trading platforms when it comes to low deposit amounts, best swap rates, and an easy-to-understand pricing structure.

This platform is intended for use by different types of traders, from beginners to professionals. Moreover, this platform is also perfect for high-frequency traders and scalpers who want to make the best trading experience with automated tools and an easy-to-use interface.

Additionally, HotForex also reimburses its clients for any transaction fees charged by the bank for fund deposits, etc. The availability of hundreds of different automated tools also makes it among the best trading platforms for new users who want to feel the market before getting started with big investments.

Furthermore, the HFcopy strategy account allows new users to get in touch with professional traders to get the best investment strategies. This is a big win-win situation for both professional traders and beginner traders. Professional traders can also generate a secondary revenue source by getting a portion of the fees charged for beginners. HotForex is definitely worth the try if you are interested in the trading business.

Disclaimer: Products and Services differ based on the entity of HF Markets Group