Best US Forex Brokers of 2024 (2024)

Company	Overall	Offers	Visit Site
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IG is a tough one to beat in my book for forex trading stateside. Forex and CFD traders looking to trade a large number of instruments across multiple asset classes, including exchange-traded securities on international exchanges, will find IG offers an extensive range of tradable products on its platforms.

• Total forex pairs offered: 91
• Likes: Comprehensive research tools and real-time exchange data; broad range of markets, currency pairs, and multi asset CFDs (including cryptocurrencies); licensed in major regulatory jurisdictions; competitive commission-based pricing and spreads on forex.
• Dislikes: Web platform trading windows must be resized manually to keep the layout organized; Forex Direct only available to professional traders within EU.
• Read a full IG forex review on our sister site, ForexBrokers.com.

Company	Overall	Offers	Visit Site
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FOREX.com has plenty of options for forex and CFD traders across its regulated offerings globally, and I find even its Advanced Trading platform to be pleasantly easy to use. With a full range of features, diverse trading tools, and comprehensive research, FOREX.com caters to traders of all experience levels.

• Total forex pairs offered: 84
• Likes: Licensed in highly regulated jurisdictions; advanced charting capabilities in both desktop and web platforms; platforms feature numerous channels of research content and trading ideas; offers cryptocurrency CFDs in the U.K., and bitcoin futures in the U.S.
• Dislikes: Average spreads are higher than at some low-cost brokers; ceased business of regulated activities in Hong Kong.
• Read a full FOREX.com forex review on our sister site, ForexBrokers.com.

Company	Overall	Offers	Visit Site
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Professional traders and highly experienced investors looking for a complete multi-asset forex broker will find Interactive Brokers offers a comprehensive platform with competitive fees across multiple global financial markets.

IMPORTANT: To trade forex with Interactive Brokers in the United States, you must be classified as an Eligible Contract Participant, or ECP. An ECP is generally an individual or organization with assets of over $10 million, or $5 million if trades are hedging.

• Total forex pairs offered: 115
• Likes: Regulated in major jurisdictions and publicly traded; extensive range of global markets and asset classes; bitcoin futures trading supported; competitive fees and discounts for high-volume traders.
• Dislikes: Retail spot forex only offered to non-U.S. clients; desktop platform too complex for inexperienced traders; web platform lacks forex charts; monthly minimum activity charges.
• Read a full Interactive Brokers forex review on our sister site, ForexBrokers.com.

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After finishing its integration with TD Ameritrade in 2024, Charles Schwab, a highly trusted financial institution and multi-asset broker, now offers forex trading to its customers through the phenomenal thinkorswim platform. Forex trading at Schwab is appealing due to its sophisticated platform offering, competitive spreads, quality of support, and the safety of dealing with an established brokerage that holds trillions in assets.

• Total forex pairs offered: 73
• Likes: Services available under one universal login for all accounts; access to international exchanges in at least thirty countries; highly resourceful and knowledgeable staff; high-quality content about investing and trading; powerful charting and analysis capabilities, hundreds of indicators, and algo trading via thinkScripts.
• Dislikes: Certain website and platform features are not available for forex trading; forex-related resources are exclusive to thinkorswim and unavailable on Schwab’s standard web platform; trading signals are not available at Schwab.
• Read a full Charles Schwab forex review on our sister site, ForexBrokers.com.

Prepare for acronyms. Yes, forex trading is regulated in the U.S. by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, and requires that trading is conducted with brokers that are registered with the organization as a Forex Dealer Member (FDM) and as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM).

As part of this registration requirement, U.S. forex brokers must maintain membership status with the National Futures Association (NFA), which is the designated self-regulatory organization, or SRO. Brokers must abide by membership regulations enforced by the NFA.

In addition, U.S. regulations require that brokers maintain a net capital requirement of at least $20 million in order to be registered as an FDM in order to offer retail spot foreign exchange as a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer, or RFED.

Based on the CFTC’s own data, the following brokers offer legal forex trading in the U.S.:

• IG - Legally available to retail clients in the U.S.
• FOREX.com - Legally available to retail clients in the U.S.
• OANDA - Legally available to retail clients in the U.S.
• Charles Schwab - Legally available to retail clients in the U.S.
• Interactive Brokers - Legally available in the U.S., but only to institutional clients.
• Trading.com - (U.S. brand under XM Group’s parent company, Trading Point) - Legally available to retail clients in the U.S.

Depending on your level of experience and the stage of your trading journey, the following tips may help accelerate your forex trading progress. Keep in mind that there are no shortcuts to trading successfully, and in fact, the majority of traders lose money. In speaking with thousands of traders over the years, I have found that those who are more informed typically do better than those rushing to trade without doing the proper research.

Choose a regulated broker: The first step to getting started with forex trading is to choose a broker that is properly licensed and regulated in a trusted jurisdiction, such as the U.S.; your country of residence may also affect which brokers you can choose.

Seek out educational materials: Most regulated brokers provide plenty of free, good-quality educational content to help new investors and traders learn about financial markets. There are also third-party providers with educational resources that you can access freely; one of my favorites is BabyPips.

Set up a free demo account: Nearly all regulated forex brokers offer a free demo account so you can learn how the trading software works without depositing money. The key is to use the demo account solely to learn the software, and not for judging your trading performance — that’s because you may treat demo funds differently than real funds.

Set up a small live account: Start with an amount of risk capital that you can afford to lose. The idea here is to judge your trading on a percentage gain basis, and not on how much money you're making or losing. If you can tweak your trading strategy to produce consistent results, then you can consider scaling your trading capital by depositing more money, always using funds you can afford to lose.

Learn to analyze market news and research: The best brokers provide plenty of research content and trading tools to analyze the market for opportunities, as well as streaming news headlines with fundamental and technical analysis on market prices. Learning how to analyze this information can help you decide which trading opportunities to act upon and which to skip, in addition to finding opportunities on your own.

For even more detailed tips on how to begin trading forex, check out my wide range of educational guides on our sister site ForexBrokers.com.

To verify a forex broker’s regulatory status in the U.S., use the BASIC (Background Status Information Center) tool of the National Futures Association (NFA) on their official website here, which also verifies registration status with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Scams are unfortunately prevalent in the world of forex trading, so verifying that a broker is well-regulated is crucial.

While some forex brokers may enable early-hour trading before the trading week starts, generally the market opens globally at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday — despite banks still being closed in the U.S. — as it is already Monday in Asia Pacific including Tokyo, Singapore and Australia. The forex markets are then open 24 hours a day until just before 5 p.m. Friday to prevent rollover. (There may be exceptions for some U.S. holidays.)

There are times when trading may be halted, such as for certain futures products, and some brokers may close trading for all instruments each day, such as from 4:59 p.m. until 5:05 p.m., during rollover time. Conversely, some markets may trade even during the weekend, such as cryptocurrencies, depending on the broker you are using. Bottom line: It's always wise to check the trading hours for the markets you want to trade.

Among brokers regulated in the U.S., I'm choosing IG as the best forex broker in 2024. IG consistently ranks in first place or near the top of nearly every category we track, including investment options, commissions & fees, trading platforms, mobile apps, research, and education. In addition, IG holds more regulatory licenses than any other broker we review, helping to boost its trustworthiness.

Among U.S. forex brokers registered with the CFTC and regulated by the NFA, only three brokers offer MetaTrader, including OANDA, FOREX.com, and IG. It’s worth noting that OANDA and FOREX.com offer the full MetaTrader suite, including Metatrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), while IG only offers the MT4 platform.

Steven Hatzakis, global director of research for StockBrokers.com's sister site ForexBrokers.com, has been an active forex trader for more than 20 years. Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, including writing, consulting and serving as a registered commodity futures representative. He is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level.

Blain Reinkensmeyer, head of research at StockBrokers.com, has been investing and trading for over 25 years. After having placed over 2,000 trades in his late teens and early 20s, he became one of the first in digital media to review online brokerages. Blain created the original scoring rubric for StockBrokers.com and oversees all testing and rating methodologies.

For this guide:

• Whenever possible, we used our own brokerage accounts for testing. For several brokers, we used a test account that was provided to us.
• We tested all available trading platforms for each broker.
• We collected more than 100 data points on each broker.
• We evaluated the number and quality of each broker's regulatory licenses.

For this guide to the best brokers for forex trading in the U.S., we conducted thorough testing on a range of trading features, including each broker’s individual products, services, and tools. We looked in depth at each broker’s commissions and fees, such as bid/ask spreads, including the average spread data for some of the most popular forex currency pairs. We researched other trading costs, such as inactivity or custody fees, minimum deposit requirements, VIP rebates and/or discounts, and an exhaustive list of other important fee-based data points.

All websites and web-based platforms are tested using the latest version of the Google Chrome browser. Our Desktop PCs run Windows 11, and we use MacBook Pro laptops running macOS 12.5 to test trading on the go. We also test on mobile devices; for Apple, we test using the iPhone XS running iOS 16, and for Android we use the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra devices running Android OS 13.

We tested six forex brokers that offer legal forex trading in the U.S.:

• FOREX.com
• IG
• Interactive Brokers
• OANDA
• Charles Schwab (after acquiring TD Ameritrade)
• Trading.com

Compare IG vs Interactive Brokers vs Forex.com vs Charles Schwab side by side and view an industry-leading comparison based on over 100 different data points.