Why Trust CompareForexBrokers Australia

Since 2014, we’ve reviewed ASIC-regulated forex brokers in Australia and tested most of the brokers we cover with our own funds. Here’s how I keep the rankings honest for you.

We started in 2014. Our AFS Authorised Representative number is 001274082, under Bardin Capital Pty Ltd (AFSL 247858). We cover 32 ASIC-regulated brokers, and we’ve tested 28 of them with live accounts, so the shortlist you see here is already filtered by our own trading data. David Levy, our Head of Content, signs off on every published page.

The promise

The same pattern brings you here because you’ve seen it before: glowing reviews, vague methodology, bonus offers above the fold, and the same five brokers at the top no matter who’s testing. We’ve spent eleven years building the opposite. This page lays out the rules, so they can be held against us.

I founded CompareForexBrokers in October 2014, originally at compareforexbrokers.com.au. When we grew internationally, the main site moved to compareforexbrokers.com in 2019. We relaunched the .com.au domain in June 2026 as a dedicated Australian site, focused only on ASIC-regulated brokers.

This site was built to help Australian retail traders find the best forex brokers in Australia and steer clear of the ones that will burn them. We don’t try to cover every broker on earth. We stick to the 32 brokers that hold a current Australian Financial Services Licence and accept retail clients here. That narrow focus, not a global sweep, is what I would point to as the reason the rankings are useful.

Editorial independence

The single biggest question you probably have is whether the rankings can be bought. On this site, they can’t.

Three rules:

1. No broker pays for placement. A broker cannot rank higher by paying us. There is no “premium listing” tier, no sponsored review badge, so the ranking you see cannot be bought. The rankings are the output of our scoring model, and that model is described in full on the methodology page.
2. Affiliate relationships are disclosed and isolated. Some brokers we cover have an affiliate relationship with us. If you click through and open an account, the broker may pay us a commission. That commercial relationship has zero input into the score. The full advertiser disclosure explains how the firewall works.
3. The same model applies to brokers we love and brokers we don’t. Pepperstone and IC Markets have been at or near the top since the site started. CMC Markets and IG sit consistently in our top tier. Other brokers have moved up and down, dropped off, or rejoined. The model decides, so the ranking you see is the same one it produces for every broker. It isn’t bent because a broker is a long-standing partner or a new entrant we’re trying to support.

Our regulatory status

We operate as a Corporate Authorised Representative under Australian financial services law. Our AFS Rep number is 001274082, and we operate under the AFSL of Bardin Capital Pty Ltd (AFSL 247858).

What that means for you: we are authorised under the Corporations Act 2001 to provide general financial product information about CFDs and forex to Australian readers. We are not licensed to give personal financial advice. None of the content on this site considers your personal financial circumstances, and none of it should be treated as a recommendation to act.

If a broker review or guide ever crosses the line from general information into personal advice, that’s my error. The fastest way to flag it is through the contact page, and it will be fixed.

We’re a Certified B Corporation

We’ve been a Certified B Corporation since February 2026. B Corp certification, issued by the non-profit B Lab, is granted to companies that meet verified standards of accountability and transparency across governance, workers, community and customers. Our overall B Impact Score is 98.4, against a median of 50.9 for ordinary businesses completing the assessment. The relevant part for readers is the customer leg, and it is the part I would look at first: the assessment covered how we handle editorial independence, affiliate disclosure and reader outcomes. Our profile is in the B Corp directory.

How we test brokers

A spread number is trusted only when it comes from a live account we’ve opened, funded and traded with our own money. Not a demo. Not a phone call to the broker’s BDM. In our broker reviews, 28 of the 32 ratings come from a real account at the broker’s Australian ASIC-regulated entity funded with our own money, none of them a demo.

The full testing protocol sits on the methodology page. The short version:

• 8 weighted criteria make up the score: trading costs (25%), trust and regulation (20%), trading experience (15%), platforms (15%), customer service (10%), range of markets (5%), education (5%) and funding (5%).
• 100+ data points are recorded per broker per testing cycle.
• Spreads are recorded over 48 hours covering the Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York sessions using our own CFB-SpreadLogger 1.1.0 on MetaTrader, in our capture from 22 to 24 September 2026. The earlier IceFX SpreadMonitor tool on MT4 produced the dated May to June 2026 figures.
• Execution speed is measured with two purpose-built MT4 expert advisors (ExTest_ForExpat and our internal Broker Latency Tester EA).
• Customer service is benchmarked with a fixed list of test queries sent during AU business hours.
• Funding and withdrawal is tested by depositing and withdrawing AUD via every advertised method.
• Verification records are published on every review since July 2026: masked funded-account references, archived spread captures, ASIC register checks and PDS versions, each with the date it was last confirmed.

We run tests monthly for the most-trafficked brokers (Pepperstone, IC Markets, CMC, IG, OANDA), and at least quarterly for the rest of the shortlist. Every broker gets a full annual review where the rating is rebuilt from scratch, so the score you see is refreshed, not inherited.

Fact-check workflow

Every published page on this site goes through a four-stage editorial process before launch.

Stage 1: Drafting. I, David Levy, or one of our research contributors writes the first draft. Drafts are written from raw data captured during testing, not from broker-supplied marketing copy, so what you read starts from captured data, not a press release.

Stage 2: Independent test verification. We cross-check spread, execution and platform claims against the testing logs. AFSL numbers are verified against ASIC’s Professional Registers Search. Any number that can’t be verified is removed or flagged, which is the verification step I would not skip.

Stage 3: Fact-check by David Levy. David is our Head of Content and the final reviewer on every published page. His remit spans the wider CompareForexBrokers group, which brings an outside perspective to the AU content. Nothing ships without his sign-off.

Stage 4: Copy edit. Every page gets a final editorial pass for plain-English tone, Australian spelling and consistent regulatory wording before we publish.

When you email to flag an error, we add a fifth stage: same-day correction and a public note in the page’s revision history.

How often we update

Static facts like a broker’s AFSL number, founding date, or headquarters are updated when they change. ASIC has a feed for AFSL register changes, and we watch it so you don’t have to.

Live trading data is on a rolling schedule:

• Spreads: captured on our live MT4 and MT5 accounts, in May to June 2026 and again in September 2026. Every published spread carries a date stamp.
• Platform features: when a broker pushes a release. MT5 builds, cTrader updates, Next Generation feature releases. We re-test within 30 days.
• Pricing changes: when a broker amends their PDS. We track the pricing-change announcements and re-rate any broker whose costs move materially.
• Full broker rating: annual cycle. Every broker on the shortlist gets a complete top-to-bottom re-rating once per year.

The “Last updated” date at the top of every page is the real date of the most recent edit, not a template variable that auto-bumps. A January 2024 stamp on a review means the page hasn’t been touched since January 2024, and the trading data should be treated accordingly.

ASIC and AFCA respect for AU clients

We’re based in Melbourne and we write for Australians. That has practical consequences for the trust signals you see on this site.

ASIC is the regulator we cite. Every broker’s AFSL number on the site comes from ASIC’s register, and you can check any of them on the Professional Registers Search. The leverage limits we quote (30:1 majors, 20:1 minors and gold, 10:1 other commodities, 5:1 shares, 2:1 crypto) trace back to ASIC’s Product Intervention Order. We don’t quote FCA, ESMA or CySEC rules unless we’re explicitly contrasting jurisdictions.

AFCA is the dispute-resolution body we point to. If a broker on this site mistreats a reader and won’t fix it, the free path is through the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. Every ASIC AFSL holder offering retail CFDs must be an AFCA member. We confirm that membership before listing a broker. If a broker drops AFCA membership, they come off the site.

We mention the CSLR where relevant. The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, operational since April 2024, pays unpaid AFCA determinations in personal advice, securities dealing and credit only. It does not cover forex or derivatives trading, trading losses or general broker insolvency, and we flag that where it matters. The common comparison to the UK’s compensation scheme is a misreading, and I would not want readers to treat it as an equivalent. It is not.

The ATO is cited on tax content. I’m not licensed to give tax advice, so every page that touches CFD or forex tax treatment links to ATO TR 2005/15 and recommends a registered tax agent.

Who we are

I founded CompareForexBrokers in 2014 with Noam Korbl from a small office in Melbourne. The site now covers 32 ASIC-regulated brokers, and our research team has logged thousands of hours testing live accounts since launch.

The site is operated by The Trustee for Compare Forex Brokers Unit Trust (ABN 49909258897), our Corporate Authorised Representative (No. 001274082) of Bardin Capital Pty Ltd (AFSL 247858). Our Australian office is at Flat 1/650 Inkerman Rd, Caulfield North VIC 3161, and our contact phone is 0412 156 618.

• Justin Grossbard, Co-Founder and CEO. Trading since 1998. Full bio.
• David Levy, Head of Content and Fact-Checker. Final reviewer on every published page.
• Research contributors. Live-account testing across 28 of the 32 brokers on the shortlist.

How to push back

We get things wrong. Spreads change without notice, an AFSL gets surrendered between our checks, a broker rolls out a platform update we miss for a week. When something needs flagging, the fastest way is through the contact page, and I’ll get on it for you.

Our target is to acknowledge a correction within 24 hours and publish the fix within 72 hours. Material errors get a dated correction note at the bottom of the affected page.