Best Forex Brokers in Malaysia 2020

Not long ago it was illegal to trade Forex in Malaysia to the point that some people were jailed for trading, but things have changed. You can now legally trade any currency pair but you will need a reliable broker. Inside we have compiled a list of the most recommended Malay forex brokers.

The brokers below represent the best forex brokers in Malaysia.

Oanda

OANDA is one of the early pioneers of online forex brokers, established in the mid 1990s. The company is said to be founded by Dr Michael Stumm and Dr. Richard Olsen.

When the online trading platform FXTrade was launched in 2001, it was the first fully automated forex trading platform. Since then, OANDA have grown by leaps and bounds to handle more than a million queries a day. It is estimated that about 20% of the global spot forex trades goes through OANDA’s servers.

Vantage FX

Vantage FX was founded in 2009 in Australia and is the brand name of the Vantage International Group which is regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) and advertises the segregation of client funds which are held with Australia’s AA rated National Australia Bank (NAB).

The broker offers services that are designed for both beginner and professional traders with access to Forex ECN trading, as well as CFD trading on Indices, Commodities and U.S and Hong Kong Shares on the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms for Mac, PC, iOS and Android as well as social trading platforms such as MyFXbook and Zulutrade.

FP Markets

A solid Australian broker, with sturdy ASIC regulation that offers transparent dealing, across a wide selection of 10,000 plus assets. A variety of account types across Forex and CFD’s and 0 pips spreads on their ECN trading. Leverage on the MT4 platform of up to 1:500 and trading of Bitcoin too.

Plus500

Plus500 is a leading CFD trading platform with support for stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, and Forex. This commission-free brokerage charges very low spread-rates and offers fast trades on a great platform. Plus500 supports complex trades, includes negative balance protection, and makes trading an educational and hopefully profitable venture.

You can start with a free demo account to test the platform and any trading strategy. Real money accounts offer leverage of up to 300:1. This broker is based in Israel and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Check out our full Plus500 review here.

FBS

FBS offers a regulated CySEC arm for European traders and regulated Belize arm for traders outside of Europe. Global regulated arm offers bonuses and high leverage of up to 3000 times. MT4 is the only platform available, although it is accessible over web, desktop and mobile.

eToro

eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers CFD and non CFD products.

eToro is an online trading platform that was founded in 2007 by the Assia siblings and their friend David Ring in Tel Aviv, Israel. Formerly known as RetailFX, eToro is the pioneering online broker for social trading. Their Openbook social trading platform in fact changed the nature of the way beginner online traders can trade the financial markets. It made the markets accessible to everyone, no matter what their level of experience by creating a user-friendly environment and allowing traders to copy the trades of other traders’ strategies automatically.

How to Choose a Forex Broker as a Malay Trader

The era of Forex has come to Malaysia. There are a lot of brokers offering their services to the locals and you can open an account and become an independent trader. However, currency trading has long been known as the area where lots of scammers run their schemes and defraud investors of their money.

So, when you open an account be sure it is Negara regulated (Malaysian National Bank). You should also check what trading platform and software the brokers provide. Then, do not forget to look at the fees and commissions. It is also important that the broker offers a number of different types of accounts based on your capital size. Do not trade with a broker if it has poor customer service. Also, try to select brokers who have most useful additional services both online and offline.

General Regulation & Malay Regulation

Most countries of the world have had the Forex market regulated for a long time. Regulation has evolved through different stages, mostly from very loose to very strict. Some time ago a scam broker could function freely across the world and could easily get away with it, without being punished. Things have changed now. Unregulated brokers are not welcome in most countries and are even legally banned in some of them. Those who want to offer their services have to get licenses in the countries they want to operate in and they also have to keep their money separate from their customers‘ money. Margin requirements have gone up and leverage was lowered. The situation has definitely changed for the better.

Some ten years ago, it was illegal to trade Forex in Malaysia. A number of people even went to jail and not because they were cheating or running some schemes, but because there was no regulation for currency trading and those who did trade were considered functioning outside of the law. A few years ago trading became legalized and now financial markets including Forex is regulated by Negara (National Bank of Malaysia). The regulator issues licenses for those who want to offer their services to local traders supervises and regulates those brokers and if deems it necessary intervenes or punishes those who fail to comply with the rules set by the Bank. It handles complaints sent by investors and takes an active role in keeping brokers acting transparently and fairly towards their customers.

Trading Platform & Software

After you have figured out which brokers are regulated by Negara, you want to look at the trading platform and software those regulated brokers offer to the customers. The simpler the platform the better. You do not want to make mistakes that are technical due to an overcomplicated platform. Metatrader 4 seems to be the most user-friendly type and is quite easy to use as it has an advanced and very useful chartstation, tons of indicators that you may use or ignore, the possibility to make your notes on charts, add and remove various features, copy function and backtesting of your strategy. There are much more, but you need to check those out, to see whether this or any other platform the company offers meets your needs. If not, go and check another broker‘s platform. Choose the best one for you!

Commissions & Spreads

Brokers make money by charging fees and taking commissions on your transactions. In Forex, those commissions come in the form of spreads. What is a spread? It is the difference between the bid and ask price. In EUR/USD (most popular pair) the difference will typically be 1-3 pips. So, when you open a trade you have a loss of those 1-3 pips. You want to find a broker that has the lowest spreads.

You should also know that spreads can be fixed and variable. Fixed spreads do not change. They are always the same. In major FX pairs spreads can be from 1 to 5 pips and with currency crosses (that do not have US dollar in the pair) they can be from 6 to 20 pips. If spreads are variable they will be lower than fixed ones for most of the time. The size of spread fluctuates and with major pairs can be from 0.2 to 2 pips, while crosses can have 2-10 pip spreads. When markets become very volatile, spreads tend to increase. They can become huge when some important financial or economic data hits the markets. They can increase ten or twenty times and for crosses even one hundred times. But do not worry, such radical increases happen only when very important news comes out and they exceed or fail to meet market expectations and it usually lasts just a minute or even less, then spreads come back to normal levels.

Account Types

Before you open a real money account with any broker do not forget to try their demo account to see how things work there. When you are ready to move on, there should be a number of accounts for you to choose from.

Micro account

This account is meant for those who want to trade real money, but have under $1000 dollars. You can start trading this account with around $100 with most brokers and the price of a pip is usually ten cents. If you are ready to move on, then you can choose.

Mini account

A mini account would be for those who have over $1000 and who are ready to trade mini lots. A mini lot size is 10 thousand US dollars. Just do not forget that now you would be risking ten times more than in micro account. If you want still bigger volumes to trade you have to open…

Standard account

If you can afford to invest 10 thousand US dollars and more you may start thinking about opening a standard account. The risks are ten times higher on this account than on a mini account as a standard lot size is 100 thousand US dollars.

Islamic account

As Malaysia is predominantly a Muslim country you may consider opening an Islamic account where you will not be charged and you will not make interest on your overnight positions.

Customer Service

It is expedient for you to test any company‘s customer service before you invest your money with them. Both local and foreign brokers should deal with your requests in your native language or dialect. You should get live online support 24 hours per day, five days of the week. Problems have to be solved fast and effectively. If your broker fails to provide you a feedback in 72 hours he is not working efficiently and you should consider looking for another one.

Additional Services

What else does your broker offer besides opening and closing transactions for you? A good broker will offer as many extra valuable services as possible. Most of those will have educational nature in the form of Ebooks on various topics, daily market videos with experts‘ analysis, daily fundamental and technical market reviews, news feed and comments on Central Bank policy. An abundance of these services shows that a broker invests his money to offer you as many valuable services as possible and for free.

Conclusion

There is no safe investment. Any time you make a trade, it is a risk. However, you may choose to control that risk. One of the ways to reduce and control it is to find a reliable Forex broker and open an account with him. We hope this article will help you do exactly that, and please note our list for the best Malay forex brokers below. Good luck in trading Forex.

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