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FXEmpire’s 2018 Best Broker Awards Winners
Updated: Sep 7, 2023, 12:25 UTC
Here at FXEmpire, we would like to welcome you to the 2018 Broker awards. The awards mark excellence and innovation among the operators working in the Forex, CFD’s and Cryptocurrency arenas.
The FXEmpire Awards, first initiated in 2014, have become the cornerstone of trading awards in their class. Our goal in creating these awards is to objectively reward the most deserving brokers that continuously strive to stand ahead of the pack, with the objective of pleasing their clients above all else.
Furthermore, we want to help traders make better choices about who they partner with and we hope that when traders see the awards displayed on the winning brokers’ website, they will feel confident about partnering with that company.
This year, we have seen over 20,100 participants voting for their choice of broker across the nine categories through a survey we hold on our website. Some of the categories include:
Most Innovative Forex Broker, Most Promising Broker, Top CFD Broker, Top US Forex Broker and Best Cryptocurrency Broker.
Top CFD Broker 2018 – Plus500
Offering over 2000 instruments for CFD traders, this FCA regulated broker is truly a force to be reckoned with in the CFD trading industry. Its millions of traders are well protected and receive some of the most evolved trading technology available in the market today. Established in 2008, Plus500 Ltd is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion. The Plus500 brand is managed by several subsidiaries with the main subsidiaries being Plus500UK Ltd and Plus500CY Ltd.
*82% of retail CFD accounts lose money
Plus500 Regulations & Product Offerings
Operating under the umbrella of different subsidiaries in different parts of the world, the Plus500 brand is under the regulatory oversight of several regulatory bodies. In the UK, the broker is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority while in Cyprus, it is under the jurisdiction of the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission. In the Australian market, Plus500 is regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.
To give its traders a secured and reliable platform for them to conduct their trading activities, Plus500 has provided them with a proprietary platform. The platform is available in different formats such as desktop client, a WebTrader, a mobile app and as a Mac application. With the Plus500 platform, you will be able to access in excess of 2000 CFD instruments covering the forex market, the stock market, the indices market and the cryptocurrency market.
With regards to the customer support service provided by Plus500, you can request assistance from the support team whenever you need help, as the service is available 24/7. There are various methods of communicating with the support team such as email and live chat. The website is also translated into more than two dozen different languages hence making it relatively easy to navigate around the website even if English is not your mother tongue.
Overall, one cannot help but be impressed by the large number of CFD instruments that are available for trading at Plus500. In addition to the broker’s large coverage of the markets, there are other benefits of trading the financial markets on the Plus500 platform. For starters, the broker is regulated across several jurisdictions ensuring your legal interests are protected. But most important of all, Plus500 has shown that it is able to meet the trading needs of more experienced traders.
Best Trading Experience 2018 – AvaTrade
Why AvaTrade?
One of the pioneering Forex and CFD brokers in the trading arena, AvaTrade offers a well-rounded trading experience. It provides its traders with a wide selection of trading instruments, an eclectic mix of trading technology and a highly regulated trading environment. The overall experience, from landing on the website to signing up and then trading is smooth and faultless. Meanwhile, customer support is available around the clock to offer care and guidance in a highly professional and efficient manner. It is this streamlined journey that sets AvaTrade apart and wins it this year’s award for Best Trading Experience.
The Company and Offering
Founded as AvaFx initially in 2006, AvaTrade is based in Dublin, Ireland. The broker also maintains several satellite offices in major cities such as Paris, Milan, Shanghai, Sydney, and Tokyo. In compliance with local requirements, AvaTrade has voluntarily submitted itself to be regulated by several domestic regulatory agencies such as Australian Securities & Investments Commission, Financial Services Agency and the Financial Futures Association of Japan, the Commodities Futures Association of Japan and the Financial Services Commission (British Virgin Islands).
Since its inception, the broker has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, it has more than 200,000 active accounts and executes in excess of 2 million transactions on a monthly basis. In striving to achieve the best trading conditions for its traders, AvaTrade offers a diversity of instruments for trading. These include Bitcoin, Bonds, currency pairs, commodities, equities, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and market indices. There is also a wide selection of trading platforms to choose from. They range from the industry proven MetaTrader platforms to specialized platforms for automated trading such as ZuluTrade.
For traders who require assistance, AvaTrade is supported by a customer support team that is available 24 hours 5 days a week. The support staff are multilingual and can be contacted by email, fax, live chat, and telephone. With numerous awards under its belt, AvaTrade has certainly proven itself to be a capable and reliable broker. It is hardly surprising that the broker has also captured the title of being the broker that offers the best trading experience considering the many benefits such as low spreads, wide choice of trading platforms and a regulated trading environment that the broker has bestowed on its traders.
Best Educational Broker 2018 – 24Option
Why 24Option?
In terms of providing its traders with the most comprehensive educational package in the industry, the title of the “Best Educational Broker” unquestionably goes to 24Option. The quality of the broker’s educational offering is second-to-none, ranging from courses, e-books, videos, articles, alerts, and webinars.
Initially established in 2009 as a binary options broker, 24Option has now gone on to focus on offering spot forex and CFDs trading services. The 24Option brand is owned by Rodeler Ltd with its headquarter located in Limassol, Cyrpus. For international clients, they are served by a Belize based sister company called Richfield Capital Ltd. Both the companies managing the brand are regulated, with Rodeler Ltd under the jurisdiction of the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission and Richfield Capital Ltd under the International Financial Services Commission.
24Option Offering and Service
For market access, 24Option uses the Scipio trading platform which was developed in-house. While most brokers tend to prefer adopting third-party solutions for their trading platforms, 24Option has shown real commitment to its traders, by opting to roll out their own platform in order to have more control over the platform’s features and updates. Always with their customers’ needs in mind, 24Option has also made the popular MetaTrader 4 platform available to those who want to stick to something familiar.
Currently, 24Option offers spot forex and CFDs trading on a wide range of asset classes. They include more than a dozen different types of commodities, 18 different indices, more than 40 different currency pairs and hundreds of stocks from major exchanges around the world.
To ensure that its clients can receive assistance whenever they need it, 24Option has made its customer support services available on a 24/7 basis and accessible through email, live chat, Web Contact form and over the telephone. In addition, the broker has also translated its website into several different languages such as Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
24Option has definitely demonstrated itself to be a customer-oriented broker with its comprehensive educational support. Furthermore, 24Option has also excelled in other areas such as having localized and multilingual support, intuitive trading platforms and a wide range of trading assets. However, most important of all, 24Option is a regulated broker and it has already established itself as being a trustworthy and reliable broker.
Best Customer Support 2018 – FXCM
With 24/7 customer support that is both efficient and helpful, FXCM is the undoubted winner of this category. The firm offers support through a variety of channels including email, free phone, live chat and even a physical office where clients are welcome to visit. Founded in 1999, FXCM or Forex Capital Markets has often being regarded as a pioneering online broker. It has been dubbed one of the fastest growing companies in the US by Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest Growing Companies, no doubt an achievement assisted by the broker’s excellent customer support record over the years.
FXCM Products & Services
Since the beginning of 2017, FXCM has shifted its focus to the international market. The new operations center is located at #20 Gresham Street, 4th Floor, London, UK. Currently, the three main regulatory bodies that are overseeing FXCM’s operations are the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the South African Financial Services Board, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
For trading platforms, FXCM offers two main types of platforms, the flagship FXCM Trading Station and the MetaTrader 4 platform. The FXCM Trading Station is available in three versions, Trading Station Desktop, Trading Station Web and Trading Station Mobile. For MT4 fans, FXCM also offers an updated version of this popular and proven platform. As for the types of instruments available for trading, FXCM’s coverage of the markets included spot forex, precious metals, stock indices, the dollar index and international stocks. These instruments can be traded on the spot market or as CFDs with a leverage ratio as high as 400:1.
One of the key reasons why FXCM managed to clinch the title of having the Best Customer Support is the fact that the support is provided on a localized level on a 24/5 basis. To date, no other forex broker in the industry has been able to come close to the level of support provided by FXCM. This also shows the dedication which FXCM has in ensuring that all their clients’ needs are well looked after. With the dedicated support provided by FXCM, you can rest assured that your trading experience with this broker will be pleasant and worry-free.
Best Mobile Trading Experience 2018 – Alpari
Why Alpari?
Offering a seamless connection between mobile and desktop trading, Alpari is the clear winner of this category. Their app is user-friendly and intuitive and allows traders to conduct and execute trades and to stay on top of the markets throughout the day and night. The app is fast, easy to use and keeps traders up to date on market movements even when they are on the move. It is this app that helped make Alpari this year’s clear winner.
Established in 1998, the broker is one of the pioneering online forex brokers in the industry offering its clients a wide selection of quality services. With its humble beginnings as a provincial firm in Russia, Alpari today has become one of the most respected brands among traders in the online trading community. The broker has always been an innovator and hence it’s clinching the title of being the broker with the best mobile trading experience has proven to be no surprise.
Alpari Offering and Service
Based in Belize and regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the International Financial Services Commission of Belize, Alpari operates under strict regulatory guidelines ensuring that your money with being managed properly and kept safe at all times. In the event of a dispute, Alpari also offers an impartial resolution service through the Financial Commission.
In addition to its versatile mobile trading app, Alpari also offers the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms for traders who want to trade the markets from their desktop computers. These platforms are widely adopted by brokers in the industry and have proven to be reliable. With these platforms, you can easily access the spot forex and metals markets as well as the CFDs market. There are 46 currency pairs on offer and 14 types of CFDs that you can trade in. Apart from these products, Alpari is also one of the few brokers in the industry offering binary options trading.
As part of its customer support service, Alpari has translated its website into 10 different languages. The support service is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week and is accessible through various channels such as email, live chat, Viber, Skype, and telephone.
Apart from offering its traders the best mobile trading experience, trading with Alpari also offers several other benefits such as competitive spreads, choice of trading accounts, intuitive platforms and regular promotional offers.
Most Promising Broker 2018 – FBS
With free deposit insurance, a wide range of assets, leverage of up to 3000 times and extremely low spreads, FBS comes in as this year’s Most Promising Forex Broker of 2017. Their website is a pleasure to visit and their platform is unparalleled for speed and usability. FBS was founded in 2009 and is owned and managed by a Belize based holding called FBS Markets Inc. Their head office is at #1, Orchid Garden Street, Belmopan, Belize. In addition to their Belize office, FBS also maintains several offices in its primary markets such as China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
Since its inception in 2009, FBS has focused primarily on the Asian markets. In fact, the numerous awards which FBS has won over the years reflect the commitment that the broker has to its customer base in Asia. For example, FBS has been nominated the “Fastest growing broker Asia” and the “Best Forex Broker Asia”. Today, the broker has served more than 2.5 million traders worldwide and has executed over 200 million trades. It is for all these reasons that FBS wins this year’s FXEmpire’s Most Promising Broker award.
FBS Service and Offering
Operating from Belize, FBS is regulated by the Belize Financial Services Commission. This means FBS is required to operate according to strict regulatory requirements and must conduct its operations in accordance with the industry best practices.
To provide its traders with access to the financial markets, FBS has provided them with the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms. Developed by MetaQuotes Software, these platforms have become the industry standard platform due to their widespread usage. Mobile trading is also supported by an app which can be downloaded from Google Play Store or Apple App Store. With these platforms, traders at FBS can trade in 3 main markets, namely the currency market, the precious metal market and the CFDs market.
Ensuring that its customers will be able to get the help that they need whenever they need it, FBS has made its customer support service available on a 24/7 basis and accessible through email, live chat, and telephone. The website is also translated into several Asian languages to enable non-English speaking traders to navigate the website confidently. In addition, the support services are also available in several languages.
Considering the efforts which FBS has put into their operations, it is easy to see why they have managed to clinch the title as 2017 Most Promising Broker. They offer a safe and secure platform and they have ensured that their customer team will be able to communicate effectively with the traders.
Most Innovative Broker 2018 – FXTM
With many features that you will not see with other competing brokers, FXTM is this year’s outstanding winner of the Innovation category. Their product includes a large array of trading accounts, different types of payment methods and interesting promotions. Established in 2011, FXTM or ForexTime is a multi-award-winning forex broker that is based in Cyprus. The broker is well known to traders in the online trading community for offering state of the art trading tools and a secured trading environment for them to carry out their trading activities. Over the years since its inception, the broker has earned a reputation as a customer-oriented broker. This is evident from the kind of services offered by the broker.
FXTM Regulations and Offerings
Operating through a group of subsidiaries, the FXTM brand today is recognized as a global brand. Apart from being a regulated platform under the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, the FXTM brand also operates under the jurisdiction of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the International Financial Services Commission of Belize and the South African Financial Services Board.
There are two main types of trading platforms available at FXTM, the MetaTrader 4 platform, and the updated MetaTrader 5 platform. Both these platforms are available in different versions such as desktop client, a WebTrader and as a mobile trading app. The broker has also provided support for Mac users. By providing its clients with so many versions of the MT4 and MT5, FXTM has ensured that all trading needs of its traders can be satisfied.
In terms of market coverage, FXTM is able to offer spot forex, spot metals and CFDs on commodities, stock, market indices and cryptocurrencies. Apart from its wide coverage of the markets, FXTM has also provided support for more than 30 payment methods. This is by far the largest number of payment methods that any broker has been able to provide.
With its multilingual support staff available on a 24/7 basis, you can be assured of getting assistance from the broker whenever it is needed. The broker rightly deserves its title as being the Most Innovative Broker for 2017 as it has been able to offer a level of service and forward thinking product second to none.
Best Cryptocurrency Broker 2018 – eToro
eToro has already made a splash in the world of cryptocurrency trading, with its new crypto trading product. It offers instant trades, unlimited withdrawals, and secured trading. eToro is a step ahead with its cryptocurrency offering. In fact, eToro was one of the first few mainstream brokers in 2014 to offer cryptocurrency trading as part of their CFD trading package. At a time when Bitcoin could only be bought or sold as a cryptocurrency, the ability to trade Bitcoin as a CFD derivative certainly opened up new opportunities for cryptocurrency investors.
Founded in 2006, eToro has always been known as an industry innovator. The broker was the first forex broker that embraced the idea of social trading and made it a reality for tens of thousands of traders from all over the world when the Openbook copy trading platform was first unveiled.
eToro Service and Offering
Based in Cyprus, eToro is regulated by both the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Cyprus Security Exchange Commission. As a regulated financial services provider of these two regulatory bodies, your funds are protected under the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Cypriot Investor compensation scheme. The maximum coverage under each scheme is 50,000 pounds and 20,000 euros respectively.
Since the introduction of the industry’s first social trading platform, eToro has moved on to further develop its platforms into a new platform called the CopyTrader. Proprietary in nature, the CopyTrader system allow traders access to a wider range of markets as an independent trader or as a copy trader. Designed to be user-friendly, the platform is efficient and requires no training to operate. The CopyTrader platform is also available as a mobile app.
With eToro’s trading platform, you will have access to a large selection of instruments such as stocks, commodities, precious metals, ETFs and currency pairs. As mentioned, earlier, Bitcoin trading is also available on the eToro platform.
As for customer support, you can get assistance from the support team 25 hours a day during the entire trading week. The support team can easily be reached email, fax or by calling them directly on the phone. Their website is also available in several different languages for the benefit of traders whose mother tongue is not the English language.
Cryptocurrency trading is now the rage of the financial world. By allowing traders to trade Bitcoin as a CFD instrument, eToro has made this market more accessible to the average investor. Nevertheless, cryptocurrency trading is not the only benefit that you derive by signing up with this award-winning broker. The broker offers easy access to the financial markets by providing its traders with a low initial deposit requirement and a powerful yet simple trading platform.
Top US Forex Broker 2018 – Forex.com
Forex.com offers trading opportunities in more than 180 global markets across a wide range of assets. The firm offers cash rebates, trade signals and a market strategist tool to its traders. The broker is part of the New Stock Exchange listed company Gain Capital Holdings Inc. Based in the US, Forex.com office is located at #135 US Highway 202/206. Bedminster, New Jersey. A well-rounded and innovative broker offering a diverse range of markets, Forex.com through the support of its parent company Gain Capital Holdings has earned the title of being the Top US Forex Broker in the salubrious FXEmpire broker awards.
Forex.com Service and Offering
With its roots going as far back as 1999, Forex.com is a brand that is managed by a subsidiary of the Gains Group called GAIN Global Markets Inc. The subsidiary is based in the Cayman Islands and comes under the jurisdiction of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority. In addition, Forex.com through its sister companies and affiliates are regulated in 6 different jurisdictions.
For trading platforms, Forex.com has provided two main types of platforms. Their flagship platform is the proprietary FOREXTrader. The platform comes integrated with a wide range of tools and offers a world-class trading experience. Apart from the in-house platform, you also have the choice of the MetaTrader 4 platform. Well-liked by traders from all over the world, the MT4’s distinguishing feature is its ability to support automated trading through programs called Expert Advisors.
With these two platforms, Forex.com offers access to forex, commodities and Indices markets. These different assets can be traded on the spot market or as a CFD instrument. In total, you have a choice of 42 forex pairs, a dozen commodities and 10 market indices to choose from. For customer support, you can reach the support team through email, live chat, and telephone. The support service is available through 10 am Sunday to 5 pm Friday (ET).
With strong support from its parent company and high-quality services offered by the broker, there is no doubt that Forex.com is deserving of the title of the Top US Forex Broker for 2017.
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