There’s countless forex brokers available online, ranging from unregulated to highly regulated platforms. In this article, we’ll focus on the unregulated side of the forex trading industry, highlighting the best unregulated forex brokers available in 2024.
We've analyzed a large number of unregulated forex trading platforms, and selected the best brokers among them. We've made sure to include a diverse range of unregulated forex brokers to provide options for any kind of trader.
- SimpleFX - An online trading platform with a slick user experience
- PrimeXBT - Speculate on forex, crypto and more with high leverage
- NordFX - Forex broker with copy and PAMM trading features
- AMarkets - Solid overall forex trading platform with extremely high leverage
- Octa - Popular online forex broker catering to a broad audience
Before we take a closer look at each of the unregulated forex brokers we're featuring on our list, let's first consider the main advantages and downsides of trading with an unregulated broker.
Are unregulated forex brokers worth it?
Before you deposit your money to a forex trading platform, it’s worth to carefully weigh the risks and benefits. While the practice of forex trading is risky by itself regardless of which broker you’re using, you can take on additional risks depending on the broker you choose.
While unregulated forex brokers do have their advantages, using them comes with risks that customers of regulated forex brokers don’t have to worry about. Here’s a quick breakdown of the pros and cons of unregulated forex brokers.
The advantages of using unregulated forex brokers
One of the most attractive advantages of unregulated forex brokers is that they tend to support higher leverage than their regulated counterparts. When it comes to unregulated forex brokers, it’s not uncommon to see leverage ratios of 500:1 or even higher.
This allows for greater flexibility and provides the potential to make substantial profits even with a small account. However, the fact that you can access such high leverage also means that you can quickly blow up your account if you don’t carefully manage your risk levels.
Another advantage of unregulated forex brokers is that they tend to offer a greater variety of trading products. Many such brokers don’t just offer forex pairs, but also allow users to speculate on cryptocurrencies, precious metals and market indices such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100.
If you want to create an account with an unregulated forex broker, there’s usually fewer hoops to jump through compared to registering with a regulated platform. In addition, forex brokers tend to have lax minimum deposit requirements, so traders can get started by depositing just $100, or even less in some cases.
The disadvantages of using unregulated forex brokers
Even though unregulated forex brokers offer some advantages, they also come with risks that warrant serious consideration.
Since these brokers operate with effectively no regulatory oversight, customers of unregulated forex brokers are more vulnerable to fraud. For example, the platform and its market makers could engage in activities such as stop hunting to make a profit at the expense of its customers.
Unregulated forex brokers are not required to publicly disclose their financial status, which means you might be using a broker that’s in a terrible financial condition without even knowing it.
In case the unregulated forex broker you’re using goes under and you can’t access your money, there might be no realistic way for you to get compensated for the lost funds.
Simply put, your money is less safe with an unregulated forex broker than with a regulated one. Therefore, it would be prudent to not deposit larger sums of money to unregulated platforms.
The best unregulated forex brokers
Now that we understand the benefits and risks of using unregulated forex trading platforms, let’s take a look at our list of the best unregulated forex brokers in more detail.
1. SimpleFX - An online trading platform with a slick user experience
SimpleFX is an online trading platform that prides itself on delivering a highly intuitive user experience.
In terms of forex trading, SimpleFX offers 60 currency pairs and supports the popular MetaTrader 4 trading software. Of course, users can also access SimpleFX’s markets through a standard web interface with charts powered by TradingView, providing quite a few customization and technical analysis options.
Traders on SimpleFX can access leverage of up to 1,000:1. However, the amount of leverage that’s allowed decreases as the user’saccount balance increases. The highest leverage level of 1,000:1 is only permitted for users who have an account balance of $1,000 or below.
In addition to forex markets, SimpleFX also caters who those who also like to explore other markets. The platform also offers products for trading cryptocurrency, popular indices and precious metals.
2. PrimeXBT - Speculate on forex, crypto and more with high leverage
PrimeXBT is an online trading platform that provides an extensive selection of trading instruments, including forex, stock indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. With industry-leading high leverage traders can access a broad variety of trading strategies.
The selection of trading products listed on PrimeXBT enables traders to create a diversified portfolio spanning various asset types. PrimeXBT also allows traders to make informed trading decisions thanks to features informed such as the watchlist and a comprehensive set of technical analysis tools. These tools include over 30 indicators, drawing tools, and multiple time frames, enhancing the accessibility for traders to make well-informed decisions.
In terms of leverage, PrimeXBT offers up to 1:1000 for forex pairs, up to 1:200 for Bitcoin and Ethereum, and 1:100 for indices and commodities as well as altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies).
PrimeXBT accepts cryptocurrency deposits, as well as fiat currency deposits through AdvCash. Alternatively, customers can use their credit card to buy crypto and directly fund their account in this manner.
3. NordFX - Forex broker with copy and PAMM trading features
NordFX is a forex broker with support for the MetaTrader 4 software. However, traders can also access the markets supported by NordFX through a mobile application for both iOS and Android devices.
At the time of writing, the NordFX platform supports trading in 33 different forex pairs, but users can also speculate on the price movements of various precious metals and equities. So, NordFX can be a suitable choice for those looking to occasionally branch off from exclusively trading the foreign currency markets.
NordFX customers can choose between three types of trading accounts: Fix, Pro and Zero. The higher tiers offer tighter spreads and higher quote precision, although they require higher minimum deposits. Still even the highest “Zero” tier is still quite accessible, as the minimum deposit requirement is set at a reasonable level of $500.
The NordFX platform offers a copy trading feature, which allows users to automatically mirror the moves made by more experienced traders. Another relatively unique feature provided by NordFX is PAMM (Percent Allocation Management Module) trading, which allows users to allocate their funds to more advanced traders.
4. AMarkets - Solid overall forex trading platform with extremely high leverage
AMarkets is an online broker that allows traders to speculate on the price movements of forex pairs, ETFs, stocks, indices, commodities and even cryptocurrencies. Depending on the trading instrument that’s being used, AMarkets makes it possible to access leverage of up to 3,000:1, which is one of the highest levels in the industry.
In order to cater to different types of traders, AMarkets provides four different types of accounts: Standard, Fixed, ECN and Crypto. The most popular type of account is Standard, which features floating spreads, a minimum deposit amount of $100, and access to both instant and market order execution types.
Keeping up with the trends in the forex industry, AMarkets also offers a copy trading feature as well as the ability to deposit various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and stablecoins.
5. Octa - Popular online forex broker catering to a broad audience
Octa is a popular online forex broker that supports MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 as well as its own OctaTrader trading platform. Octa offers more than 300 trading instruments overall, ranging from foreign exchange pairs to stocks, indices and commodities.
Overall, Octa’s platform is very sleek and offers a friendly user experience. Newer traders can benefit from Octa’s copy trading feature, while experienced traders can disclose their trades to others and earn extra income in addition to their trading profits.
In terms of deposit minimums, users can get started on Octa with as little as $25. You can deposit funds to Octa via Neteller, Skrill, Mastercard, as well as cryptocurrency.
While Octa’s platform for European customers is regulated by Cyprus-based regulator CySEC, its global entity is unregulated. Please keep in mind that Octa’s European and global versions don’t necessarily share the same features and trading products.
The bottom line
Unregulated forex brokers can be attractive due to the high amounts of leverage they offer as well as the ability to speculate on asset classes other than foreign exchange pairs. However, they also pose their own set of risks, as their customers are much less protected than those on regulated forex platforms.
If you want to learn more about forex trading, check out our article exploring whether forex trading is profitable or not.
