Here’s our selection of the 5 Best South African MetaTrader 5 (MT5) brokers for the year 2022:
Broker |
Reason |
Markets.com |
Best in most assets offered |
AvaTrade |
Best for experienced currency traders |
FxPro
|
Best in execution |
Tickmill |
Best FSCA alternative |
ThinkMarkets |
Best for share traders |
All the above brokers are required to possess a financial license from FSCA (Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa). This grants South African traders a great layer of protection in the event of any dispute as complaints can be dealt with locally.
Each one of these brokers was analysed using our proprietary methodology along with the TTBTrust score (our proprietary safety scoring system) prior to being ranked using our comparison tool.
1. Markets.com - Best in most assets offered
Visit68% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Markets.com is an international broker that offers share dealing and CFD trading accounts through their own proprietary platform or MT4 and MT5.
Key data |
Total Asset Offering | 10000 |
EUR/USD Spread | Dynamic - From 0.7 Pips |
Commissions | No comissions on CFDs. For share dealing, the first 3 months are commission free, then the structure is:
- EU Shares = 0.1% (min €10)
- UK Shares = 0.1% (min £8)
- US Shares = 2c (min $15)
- AU Shares = 0.1% (min A$10)
|
Minimum Deposit | $, €, £ - 100 |
Financial Regulators |
- CySec (Cyprus)
- FCA (UK)
- ASIC (Australia)
- FSCA (South Africa)
|
MT4 | Yes |
MT5 | Yes |
cTrader | No |
TradingView | Yes |
Proprietary Platform | Yes |
Markets.com holds 4 financial licenses from which 2 belong to high value financial regulators. They are part of Playtech Ltd (a publicly traded company on the LSX).
The Good | The Bad |
---|
- Clear separation between investors and Traders by offering share dealing accounts and CFD trading accounts
- Wide range of platforms (Proprietary, MT4, MT5)
- Wide range of stocks and stock CFDs
|
- Minimum trade sizes larger than average
- Spreads above average
|
Markets.com offers the possibility to trade thousands of CFDs or to invest in more than 7,000+ real shares via their own proprietary platform or via MetaTrader 5. If having a massive asset variety is important for you, you’ll find yourself well-served with their offer. On the other hand, their spreads are not that competitive.
2. AvaTrade - Best for experienced currency traders
Visit71% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
AvaTrade is a top-tier multinational broker with more than 7 financial regulators specialising in FX and options trading with their own proprietary platforms.
Key data |
Total Asset Offering | 800 |
EUR/USD Spread | Dynamic - From 0.9 Pips |
Commissions | No |
Minimum Deposit | $, €, £ - 100 |
Financial Regulators |
- ASIC (Australia)
- FFAJ (Japan)
- CBI (Ireland)
- IIROC (Canada)
- CySec (Cyprus)
- FSCA (South Africa)
- ADGM (United Arab Emirates)
- ISA (Israel)
|
MT4 | Yes |
MT5 | Yes |
cTrader | No |
TradingView | No |
Proprietary Platform | Yes |
AvaTrade holds 8 financial licenses from which 6 belong to high value financial regulators. Their specialty is definitely currencies trading as they provide fixed spreads and currency options.
The Good | The Bad |
---|
- AvaProtect feature for negative trades payback
- Great variety of platforms (proprietary ones, MT4 & MT5)
- Smooth platform experiences and easy account management
- Custom Options trading platform
|
- Lack of variety in stocks, ETFs and bonds
- Expensive inactivity fees
- No multi-chart tools
- High trade minimums in all assets except forex
|
AvaTrade's spreads are not the most competitive in the industry, but if you’re an experienced trader looking for an interesting speculative or hedging strategy, you may find yourself well served with their currency options offering.
3. FxPro - Best in execution
Visit74.46% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
FxPro is a regulated global brokerage firm offering a vast array of tradable instruments including CFDs on FX, Stocks, Crypto, Commodities, Indices, Energies and Futures.
Key data |
Total Asset Offering | 2200 |
EUR/USD Spread | Dynamic - From 1.2 Pips |
Commissions | No commissions on MT4 & 5 ($45 per $1million USD traded on cTrader |
Minimum Deposit | €, £, $ - 100 |
Financial Regulators |
- CySec (Cyprus)
- ASIC (Australia)
- SCB (Bahamas)
- FSCA (South Africa)
|
MT4 | Yes |
MT5 | Yes |
cTrader | No |
TradingView | No |
Proprietary Platform | Yes |
FxPro holds 4 financial licenses including their (FSCA one). Their specialty is currency trading as they pride themselves on having an execution speed below 14ms.
The Good | The Bad |
---|
- Moderate asset offering (around 2,500+ instruments)
- Great plafform variety (FxPro Edge CFD, MetaTrader 4 & 5, cTrader)
|
- No real stocks or ETFs
- Proprietary platform is not user friendly
|
Execution is a very important point especially for professional high volume traders that execute strategies such as scalping as a few seconds difference can mean a massive profit or a massive loss. If execution speed is a very important point for you, you may find yourself well served with FxPro.
4. Tickmill - Best FSCA alternative
Visit61% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Tickmill is an international CFD broker headquartered in Cyprus that specialises in currency trading paired with MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms.
Key data |
Total Asset Offering | 100 |
EUR/USD Spread | From 0 pips up to 1.6 Pips (Depending on account type) |
Commissions | Depending on account type:
- Classic account has no commissions
- Pro account has a commission of 2 units of your base currency round turn per lot
- VIP account has a commission of 1 unit of your base currency round turn per lot
|
Minimum Deposit | $, €, £ - 100 |
Financial Regulators |
- CySec (Cyprus)
- FSA (Seychelles)
- FCA (UK)
- FSA (Labuan)
- FSCA (South Africa)
|
MT4 | Yes |
MT5 | Yes |
cTrader | No |
TradingView | No |
Proprietary Platform | No |
Tickmill holds 5 financial licenses from which 1 belongs to a high value regulator. Despite their offering being well below their competitors we still decided to include them as an alternative for those specifically looking for FSCA regulated brokers.
The Good | The Bad |
---|
- Very low and competitive spreads depending on the account type
- Leverage can be either removed or customised for the whole account
|
- Extremely low asset offering (over 80+ instruments in total)
- All of Tickmill’s assets are CFDs (users can’t purchase real stocks or ETFs)
|
Tickmill has a very low instrument count, they are clearly specialised in Forex. Their biggest advantages are having very competitive spreads depending on the account type chosen. Their best account is called “VIP account” and it requires a minimum deposit of 50,000 ($,€,£) to gain access to their 1 commission per side per lot. This can only be considered effective if you’re a high net worth trader.
5. ThinkMarkets - Best for share traders
VisitYour Capital is at risk.
ThinkMarkets is a global broker headquartered in Australia that offers real stocks and ETFs along with CFDs on stocks, etfs, commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies accompanied by their proprietary platform: ThinkTrader.
Key data |
Total Asset Offering | 3400 |
EUR/USD Spread | From 0.4 Pips to 1 Pip |
Commissions |
- For Standard account there are no commissions
- For Zero account there is a commission of $3.5 per lot round turn
For real stocks and ETFs investing, there is a flat fee of $8 per trade (in-and-out) or if the trade value is above $200,000 then a 0.05% fee per trade. |
Minimum Deposit | 0 for Standard Account / $500 for Zero account |
Financial Regulators |
- FCA (UK)
- ASIC (Australia)
- FSAS (Seychelles)
- FSCA (South Africa)
|
MT4 | Yes |
MT5 | Yes |
cTrader | No |
TradingView | No |
Proprietary Platform | Yes (Only for Standard Account) |
ThinkMarkets holds 4 financial licenses from which 2 belong to high value financial regulators. Their specialty is providing access to over 3,000+ ASX real shares or 1,250+ stock CFDs along with several other asset classes.
The Good | The Bad |
---|
- Possibility to invest in real stocks and ETFs or trade CFDs
- Proprietary platform ThinkTrader is smooth and user friendly
- Spreads are very competitive when compared to similar competitors
|
- Real stocks or ETFs are only from ASX (Australian Securities Exchange)
- Expensive stock trading commissions ($8 flat fee for ASX shares or ETFs)
- While their stock and ETFs offering is great, they lack variety in all other asset classes
|
ThinkMarkets offer is very competitive, they offer fractional share trading and their real share trading commissions are relatively low for ASX shares ($8 flat fee). If trading shares is a very important point for you, you may find their offer a good match.