FOREX.com Review Australia 2026

Is FOREX.com safe? ASIC AFSL 345646

Yes, FOREX.com holds ASIC AFSL 345646, current since 31 May 2010, through its Australian entity StoneX Financial Pty Ltd.

ASIC licence and StoneX Financial Pty Ltd

StoneX Financial Pty Ltd holds AFSL 345646 with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The register we read on 16 July 2026 shows one licence since 31 May 2010, held as City Index Australia Pty Limited to 1 June 2015 and GAIN Capital Australia Pty Ltd to 10 February 2021 before the StoneX name. Under the name “StoneX Financial Pty Ltd trading as City Index”, the licensee is one of the seven CFD issuers listed in ASIC media release 23-298MR of 9 November 2023 as having self-reported issuing CFDs above the leverage ratio limits in ASIC’s CFD product intervention order. ASIC reviewed the compensation payments and methodologies in July and August 2023, and all seven cooperated; the release describes ASIC-overseen remediation, not a court action, fine, infringement notice or licence condition. Before you fund an account, check that the account documents name StoneX Financial Pty Ltd.

The declarations at our sign-up on 24 August 2026 named StoneX Financial Pty Ltd (FOREX.com Australia) as the entity behind the account, so ASIC rules govern an Australian client’s account. Before you fund, I would read those declarations myself and confirm the licensee matches the AFSL on the register, because your money sits with the licensed entity.

Parent company and ownership

Parent company StoneX Group acquired GAIN Capital in mid-2020, and StoneX Group lists on NASDAQ as SNEX. The parent-company structure is the material point for you: StoneX publishes audited financials and regulatory filings that a privately held broker never has to show anyone.

Before depositing, confirm FOREX.com holds AFSL 345646 using the site's guide to checking a broker on ASIC's register.

Is FOREX.com legal in Australia?

Yes, FOREX.com is legal in Australia, serving local residents through StoneX Financial Pty Ltd, licensed by ASIC under AFSL 345646.

FOREX.com client money protection and AFCA membership

FOREX.com runs client money protection through segregated accounts at an Approved Australian Bank, with AFCA membership under member ID 19679 carrying disputes at no cost to the client.

I consider that table stakes for an ASIC broker, not a bonus.

FOREX.com holds client money in accounts separate from company funds. ASIC requires negative balance protection on retail CFD accounts, so a retail account cannot lose more than the money in it, and that is the protection I would want to see before trading. AFCA hears claims up to A$1,263,000 and awards compensation up to A$631,500. A claim about this broker’s CFD or forex trading never reaches the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, which pays up to A$150,000 and only for personal advice, securities dealing and credit. The retail standard is set out in the guide to the negative balance protection mandate.

The member ID for this entity is the reference you should quote when lodging a complaint, and few Australian brokers publish one at all. I would keep that in a note if you ever need AFCA.

I’d weigh one account carve-out before chasing leverage at FOREX.com. The Professional account classification surrenders the ASIC retail protections along with the leverage caps, and I would never trade under it without reading that trade-off twice.

FOREX.com’s AFCA member is Stonex Financial Pty Ltd, and AFCA’s Datacube, read by our team on 27 September 2026, records 6 complaints received in 2024-25, with the member not listed for 2025-26 because it fell under AFCA’s threshold of four or more complaints in the period.

• AFCA business size: Very small
• Not adjusted for client numbers
• AFCA listing threshold: Financial firms that received four or more complaints during the selected period appear in the AFCA Datacube. "Not listed" means the firm is below it.
• Middle of the field: 23 AFCA firms listed for 01/07/2025 - 30/06/2026 among the brokers this site covers, each firm counted once
• Source: AFCA Datacube, complaints by firm, read 27 September 2026

FOREX.com Trustpilot rating

FOREX.com holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.6 out of 5 from 2,508 reviews, which Trustpilot labels excellent, captured October 2026. The profile has been claimed by the broker since June 2018.

How popular is FOREX.com in Australia?

FOREX.com is searched too rarely in Australia for month-on-month change to be meaningful: 220 branded searches in September 2026, 29th of 33. Search interest measures attention, not quality; the score above is the review verdict.

29of 33Search interest rank

220

Brand searches, September 2026

n/a below 1,000

vs August 2026

20

Login searches

0.1%

Share of all broker searches

Source: Google search volume, Australia, September 2026. How this is measured

What other review sites say about FOREX.com

FOREX.com's iOS app rates 4.34 out of 5 from 41 ratings on the Australian App Store (October 2026), listed as FOREX.com: CFD Global Markets.

Android users rate FOREX.com's Android app 4.1 out of 5 from 4.34K reviews worldwide on Google Play (October 2026), listed as FOREX.com - CFD Trading Broker.

TradingView users rate FOREX.com 4.5 out of 5 from 14,368 ratings (October 2026). 192.4K TradingView users have connected a FOREX.com account. TradingView named FOREX.com its Best in Forex and CFD broker for North America 2025 and its Master of feedback winner 2024.

App Store AU

4.34

41 ratingsOctober 2026

Google Play

4.1

4.34K reviews worldwideOctober 2026View on Google Play

TradingView

4.5

14,368 ratings192.4K Traders via TradingViewOctober 2026View on TradingView

What traders say about FOREX.com

Public ratings of FOREX.com from the rating sites that list it, showing the number of reviews or ratings behind each score and the month it was captured.

Rating site	Rating	Based on	Who rated	Captured
Trustpilot	4.6 out of 5	2,508 reviews	Worldwide	October 2026
App Store	4.34 out of 5	41 ratings	Australia only	October 2026
TradingView	4.5 out of 5	14,368 ratings	Worldwide	October 2026

Each row above is a public rating of FOREX.com taken from a rating site, dated to the month its figure was captured. An App Store rating counts ratings left on Apple's Australian App Store only, while a Trustpilot figure counts reviews and a TradingView figure counts ratings from anywhere in the world. A site with no row has no rating for FOREX.com, withholds it, cannot be matched to FOREX.com with confidence, or we have not captured it yet.

FOREX.com key facts at a glance

FOREX.com is licensed in Australia through StoneX Financial Pty Ltd, which holds ASIC AFSL 345646, current since 31 May 2010, requires an A$150 minimum deposit and gives you three platforms: the proprietary Web Trader, MT4 and native TradingView.

Before anything else, check the table below, which covers the Australian entity and its former names, the spreads with their capture windows and the fee schedule.

FOREX.com Standard account spreads, measured

FOREX.com prices every Australian account spread only, with no commission on forex, indices or commodities. Our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture, run by Noam Korbl on our own live FOREX.com Australia MT4 account, measured 0.88 pips on EUR/USD and 1.64 pips across eight pairs, with commission at A$0.00 on 21 September 2026.

Advertised from 0.5 points, the EUR/USD spread at FOREX.com is variable, so the measured figure is the one to cost your strategy on. In my view, a spread-only account with no commission line makes your total cost easier to read before you place a trade.

Our lowest spread brokers in Australia guide ranks FOREX.com’s 1.64 pip Standard basket among the standard accounts in the 5 to 9 October 2026 capture. Share CFDs are the one exception to commission-free pricing, at 0.09% on Australian equities with an A$5 minimum.

The hourly comparison lets you check FOREX.com’s Standard account on EUR/USD hour by hour. In our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture, its smallest hourly average spread was 0.58 pips, in the hour from 2pm Sydney time, against 5.84 pips in the rollover hour from 8am. See where it ranks against other accounts when you compare FOREX.com’s spreads by hour.

Commission on share CFDs only

FOREX.com’s pricing page states that “FOREX.com does not charge any commissions on CFD or FX markets, with the exception of share CFD”. Australian share CFDs cost 0.09% of the consideration with an A$5 minimum, so a small position can carry a proportionally higher charge. Every other market you trade on the Standard or MT4 account is priced in the spread alone.

What FOREX.com costs per trade

MEASURED

Standard lots per month

15102550

Monthly spread cost converts pips to dollars using the EUR/USD pip value as the proxy for the 8-pair average, footnoted on-page. AUD pip value A$14.35 per standard lot at AUD/USD 0.6969 (15 Oct 2026).

Standardspread only · 8-pair average · 5 to 9 October 2026

A$235.34

At 10 standard lots per month on Standard accounts, FOREX.com costs approximately A$235.34 in spread costs. Rates as of Thu 15 Oct 2026, 5pm New York close.

What it costs to trade with FOREX.com

What a FOREX.com trade costs you is the spread alone, which measured 1.64 pips across eight pairs on the Standard account in our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture. The table below sets that against the other standard accounts from the same capture.

In the 5 to 9 October 2026 capture, FOREX.com’s Standard basket of 1.64 pips was 7th of 8 standard accounts, wider than Trade Nation at 0.96 and Capital.com at 1.33 and tighter than Trading.com at 1.66. FOREX.com offers no raw account in Australia, so you cannot trade down to the sub-pip raw pricing that IC Markets and Fusion Markets clients get. In my opinion, an active forex trader should weigh that gap before choosing FOREX.com.

FOREX.com non-trading fees

• Overnight financing applies to positions held past 5 PM New York time, direction-dependent.
• Currency conversion applies to any instrument denominated outside the account base currency.
• The inactivity fee is $15 a month (or the currency equivalent) after 24 months without activity, and accounts holding no funds are not charged.
• Share CFD commission runs around 0.09% on Australian equities, where forex, indices and commodities are commission-free on Standard.
• Guaranteed stop-loss orders depend on the platform, available on the proprietary Web Trader and not on MT4, and FOREX.com charges for a guaranteed stop-loss order when it executes.

How FOREX.com compares to CMC Markets and Pepperstone

FOREX.com charges only the spread, with the Standard account averaging 1.64 pips across eight pairs in our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture. Pepperstone and CMC Markets both offer a commission-based raw tier that FOREX.com does not match in Australia.

CMC Markets offers integrated ASX share investing alongside its CFDs, which FOREX.com does not. Pepperstone and CMC Markets ask no minimum deposit, against the A$150 minimum at FOREX.com. I would weigh that gap if you are starting with a small balance.

My view is that FOREX.com’s case against both rests on the NASDAQ-listed parent, StoneX Group, behind an ASIC licence held since 2010. I would send you there if you weigh structure over the last fraction of a pip.

FOREX.com account types and minimum deposit

FOREX.com Australia’s accounts page, read 1 October 2026, lists three account types: Standard, MT4 and Professional. The A$150 minimum deposit comes from FOREX.com’s popular FAQs page, read 6 October 2026, against no minimum at Pepperstone and CMC Markets. Our sign-up on 24 August 2026 offered Standard CFD and Standard MT4 on the account-type screen.

Standard and MT4 share the same spread-only pricing with no commission on forex, indices or commodities; the difference is the platform, the Web Trader with guaranteed stop-loss orders against MT4 for expert advisors. Professional is a client classification for wholesale and sophisticated clients, and it is not a separate pricing tier. In my view, the choice between Standard and MT4 comes down to which platform you want to trade on.

Beyond individual accounts, you can hold a Corporate, Joint, SMSF or Trust account. A VIP tier exists for clients trading A$50 million in notional volume over three months, and it adds service rather than leverage.

Professional account and swap-free

Eligible Australian traders can apply for a Professional account as Pro A for wholesale or Pro B for sophisticated clients, trading outside the ASIC retail caps at 200:1 on forex, indices and gold, 100:1 on other commodities and on bitcoin and ethereum, and 30:1 on share CFDs. The account eligibility test runs on A$2.5 million in net assets or A$250,000 in gross income for Pro A, or a sophisticated investor test for Pro B, so your classification determines the caps.

None of our records says whether FOREX.com offers a swap-free account to Australian residents. My advice is to get the answer from FOREX.com in writing before applying if you need a Sharia-compliant account.

FOREX.com minimum deposit

The A$150 minimum deposit applies to the Standard and MT4 accounts. That minimum deposit is a low bar in absolute terms and still money down where Pepperstone and CMC Markets open an account on nothing at all, so your decision may come down to how much you want the regulatory depth behind that first transfer.

FOREX.com funding methods and withdrawals

FOREX.com’s Add funds page on 2 September 2026 listed four deposit methods: card, PayID, EFT and BPAY, with PayPal deposits temporarily paused. In the portal’s own wording, card deposits fund your account instantly, PayID takes under 60 minutes, and EFT takes 1-2 days.

The portal says processing is “immediate unless under review”, and Noam’s A$200 card deposit in our test sat at Processing pending card images, so check that your bank rail is covered before you open an account.

FOREX.com deposit methods

A narrow menu of four funding methods sits against the nine at ThinkMarkets, but the list covers the Australian rails that matter: PayID and BPAY both settle without a card network in the middle.

On 2 September 2026 Noam Korbl lodged an A$200 debit card deposit from the Add funds menu, which carried a notice that “PayPal deposits have been temporarily paused until further notice.” The Secure Card Deposit page stated “Processing is immediate unless under review. If not posted immediately, please contact Client Support”, and the Funding activity page showed the request at Processing from 13:55 AEST. I read the follow-up email from the Financial Operations Department, which asked for front-and-back card images with the first twelve digits and the security code covered, as the review branch of that wording in practice. It warned that “Pending transactions may be canceled if your deposit is not verified.” Our capture on 18 September 2026 showed “Available to trade $200.00” on the dashboard, with the credit time not captured. I would conclude from that gap only that the credit landed somewhere in the sixteen days, and treat the timing as unproven. In my view, “under review” is the phrase to plan around, because the card rail can turn into a document request, so keep your card handy if you fund this way.

FOREX.com withdrawal times and fees

A withdrawal at FOREX.com is requested from the Withdraw link on the portal’s Accounts page, and a client who deposited by PayPal can still withdraw by PayPal up to the deposit amount. We have not yet made a withdrawal, so this page gives no withdrawal time or fee.

FOREX.com account opening time and checks

The FOREX.com application runs five stages online. Noam Korbl completed it at 12:23 AEST on 24 August 2026, ticking Standard CFD and Standard MT4 in the one form. Identity was an electronic licence or passport number, with no document upload and no selfie. The portal showed the MT4 account Active at once, and his record puts an approval notice at 3:21 pm on 26 August, a gap I read as the portal being ready ahead of the paperwork rather than a settled approval.

Stage 1 asks for your country of residence, email address, username and password, then your last name exactly as it appears on your passport or ID, plus your date of birth. The account-type screen offers two boxes, Standard CFD and Standard MT4, and you can tick both. Stage 2 collects your street, postcode, suburb and state, then identity under a notice that providing an identity number will speed up processing; you choose Driver Licence, Passport or None. Citizenship and tax residency follow, both Australia in our capture. Stage 3 opens with employment status under the appropriateness notice, then your financial details. The base currency arrives here, as two tiles, “AU$ - AUD” and ”$ - USD”, rather than beside the account choice, and Noam’s notes flag the placement as sitting oddly late. My reading of the None option is that it is the one costly choice, since the notice warns you may be contacted to verify your identity. He selected AUD. Annual salary, approximate net worth and the monthly trading amount complete the stage.

Suitability comes next: relevant experience or qualifications, risk tolerance, investment objective, and strategy, with options from speculation to hedging an existing portfolio. The CFD Knowledge Assessment asks applied questions; our capture shows two, one on the total margin for a short CFD on a stock at $80 per share with 20% margin, another on the unrealised result on 300 short contracts when the price falls to $45. I would revise the margin maths; a slip on a worked calculation could hold up your application. A marketing checkbox for market alerts precedes the declarations, which name StoneX Financial Pty Ltd, the ASIC licensee behind FOREX.com. Processing reads “This can take up to 30 seconds”, then a green tick. At 12:23 AEST on 24 August 2026 the dashboard listed the MT4 account Active with FUND and TRADE buttons, Meta Server FOREX.comAU-Live 101, currency AUD.

Noam’s assessment is that the form is efficient, the base currency arrives late, and the card deposit sat at Processing until card images were requested. My advice: have your licence or passport number ready, expect the currency choice in the financial section. Until the notice arrives, I would treat the Active status as provisional and hold your first deposit.

FOREX.com trading platforms

Trading platforms at FOREX.com number three: the proprietary Web Trader, MT4 and native TradingView. There is no MT5 and no cTrader for Australian clients.

FOREX.com Web Trader (proprietary)

The Web Trader is the browser-based interface, carrying charting, technical indicators, news feeds and trade tickets with nothing to install. It holds up for a trader who would rather not touch MetaTrader at all, and it is the only platform here carrying guaranteed stop-loss orders.

MetaTrader 4

MT4 runs on a Standard MT4 account and suits expert advisors, and our live account runs on the MT4 server FOREX.comAU-Live 101. FOREX.com offers no MT5 in Australia, so a trader who needs MT5 should look at the brokers in our MT5 guide. I would not treat the absence as a deal breaker unless your expert advisors are built for MQL5.

TradingView and copy trading

FOREX.com offers native TradingView trading, which means you connect your FOREX.com account inside TradingView and place orders straight from its charts. Our TradingView guide lists ASIC-regulated brokers that support this integration, so you can keep your charting setup where it already lives. There is no dedicated copy or social trading product for Australian clients, and the MetaTrader Signals marketplace is the closest substitute.

FOREX.com app

FOREX.com publishes its own mobile app, listed on the Australian App Store as “FOREX.com: CFD Global Markets”. Australian clients can trade on the Web Trader, MT4 and native TradingView from a phone.

The Web Trader is browser-based with nothing to install, and it is the only FOREX.com platform carrying guaranteed stop-loss orders. MT4 is used on a phone through its own app, published by its developer, with your FOREX.com MT4 login, and TradingView connects your broker account inside its charts. To weigh this broker against rivals, the best trading apps in Australia comparison covers every app this site reviews.

• App Store: Australian storefront, exact figures from Apple's iTunes Search API
• Google Play: worldwide counts, not comparable with the App Store counts
• Third-party MetaTrader, cTrader and TradingView apps not listed

FOREX.com leverage and margin under ASIC rules

FOREX.com leverage runs under the ASIC cap of 30:1 on major forex pairs, the same on the Standard and MT4 accounts. Our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture read an effective EUR/USD leverage of 30:1 from the terminal of our own live MT4 account.

• Crypto CFDs: BTC, ETH / other coins
• Given up with professional status: negative balance protection, the retail leverage limits, the 50% margin close-out
• Source: ASIC product intervention order (retail); FOREX.com and its Australian support, read 30 September 2026 (professional)

That cap is not a FOREX.com choice; it is the same ASIC ceiling you meet at every Australian broker.

ASIC caps retail CFD leverage at 30:1 on major forex pairs, 20:1 on minor pairs, gold and major indices, 10:1 on commodities other than gold, 5:1 on share CFDs and 2:1 on crypto assets. The caps come from a product intervention order extended to 23 May 2027, so they apply at every ASIC broker, and I would treat leverage as a fixed boundary while comparing the rest.

Your FOREX.com retail account closes out at the 50% margin level. For you, the practical consequence is that the rule requires every CFD issuer to close a retail client’s positions once account equity falls below half the total initial margin on all open positions, positions cannot be netted against each other to reduce that figure, and a gapping market can close a position below the 50% level. The margin mechanics are set out in how leverage changes risk.

FOREX.com markets and instrument counts

FOREX.com covers six asset classes (forex, share CFDs, indices, commodities, crypto CFDs, and treasuries and bonds) built around 80 plus forex pairs, with over 6,300 markets in total, though no separate count is published for the other classes.

I would keep the treasury and bond CFD access in mind if you want rates exposure without an ETF wrapper, since few Australian brokers carry them.

The treasuries row is the one most Australian brokers skip. The treasuries range gives a rates position on US T-Notes, the German Bund and UK Gilts without an ETF wrapper, though CMC Markets and IG Markets carry the deeper fixed-income feed, which I would check before assuming depth.

The range gap is the missing direct ASX share investing, since shares are CFDs only. In my view the per-class counts are a disclosure point against a published 6,300+ total, but if you want ASX ownership, look elsewhere.

FOREX.com share CFDs

FOREX.com’s share CFDs cover NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE, ASX and the major EU exchanges. The equity markets coverage is broad rather than deep on the ASX side, with no direct ASX investing at all, so every position you hold is a CFD. Australian equities also carry the 0.09% commission noted above, where forex on the Standard account carries none. The share CFD markets are compared in the guide to global share CFD markets.

FOREX.com customer support

FOREX.com’s portal sidebar on 24 August 2026 read that support is there Monday to Friday, 24 hours a day, by live chat, an Australia email for Client Services and the phone line 1800 354 182.

We have not yet timed a support reply, so this page gives no response time. For me, the hours are the fact to plan around.

Weekend cover disappears entirely from the service stack, which is the main knock here. The portal sidebar on 24 August 2026 listed support Monday to Friday, 24 hours a day, so a client holding a weekend position at this broker waits until Monday. That margin question matters most for you if you carry leveraged exposure across the Sunday open, because it cannot wait two days for an answer.

On this page the licence stack separates from the desk hours: the regulatory profile is close to the strongest in this coverage while the service rating sits below it. The desk gap should not erase the regulatory win, but Sunday news still requires a plan.

FOREX.com research, tools and education

FOREX.com publishes daily research feeds across forex, indices and commodities, a weekly macro note, beginner forex basics, intermediate technical analysis, platform tutorials and webinars. The platforms carry Trading Central’s fundamental and technical analysis on hundreds of markets and integrated Reuters market news, per FOREX.com’s Australian platform comparison page read 1 October 2026, alongside a Performance Analytics suite, an economic calendar and SMART Signals. We have not assessed the research or education live, so this section states only what the broker publishes.

Should you open a FOREX.com account?

FOREX.com suits traders who want a NASDAQ-listed parent behind their broker and simple spread-only pricing, with no commission on forex and 0.88 pips on EUR/USD in our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture. A reader who filters on total cost or wants ASX share ownership is better served elsewhere, and I would send that reader to another broker.

Two groups gain from a FOREX.com account. A trader who wants a parent publishing audited public-company financials gets StoneX Group, listed on NASDAQ, behind an ASIC licence held since 31 May 2010. A trader who runs TradingView charts can place orders from them through native TradingView trading, alongside MT4 and the Web Trader.

For two groups, the better move is to look past a FOREX.com account, and you can find the better fit with a direct comparison. An active forex trader finds no raw account here, and FOREX.com’s Standard basket ran 1.64 pips in our 5 to 9 October 2026 capture while IC Markets Raw Spread measured 0.11 pips on EUR/USD in the same capture. Share investors find no ASX ownership and a 0.09% commission on Australian equities, which is the part I would not pay if ownership was the goal.

FOREX.com ranks eighteenth among the highest-rated forex brokers in Australia on the 2026 scoring, held there by cost rather than by trust, where it rates near the top.