FP Markets Review

Company background

FP Markets, the trading name of First Prudential Markets, was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2005 by Matthew Murphie. The company has grown into a multi-jurisdictional broker with offices and regulated entities in Australia, Cyprus, South Africa, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Kenya. FP Markets serves over 200,000 clients globally and offers access to more than 10,000 instruments across forex, CFDs on shares, indices, commodities, metals, and cryptocurrencies, as well as share trading through the Iress platform.

The broker operates under the trading name FP Markets and is privately held with no publicly listed parent company. It has expanded its platform offering over the years, adding cTrader in addition to MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, and partnering with TradingView in 2024 to provide charting and trading directly within that platform.

Fees and pricing

FP Markets offers two main account types for MetaTrader and cTrader users. The Standard account carries no commission and spreads starting from 1.0 pip on major forex pairs, with an all-in cost of approximately $10 per standard round-turn lot. The Raw account charges $6 per standard round-turn lot in commission and offers spreads from 0.0 pips, resulting in a lower all-in cost for high-volume traders. The minimum deposit for both account types is $100.

The broker does not charge account opening, management, inactivity, deposit, or withdrawal fees on its side for standard payment methods including bank transfers and credit or debit cards. The Iress platform for Australian share and CFD trading carries a monthly platform fee of AUD 55, which is waived for qualifying activity levels or for Premier account holders maintaining a balance of AUD 50,000 or more. Overnight swap fees apply to leveraged positions held past 5pm New York time.

Regulation and safety

FP Markets operates through entities regulated or licensed by ASIC (AFSL 286354, Australia), CySEC (Licence 371/18, Cyprus), FSCA (FSP 50926, South Africa), FSA (SD 130, Seychelles), CMA (Licence 103, Kenya), and FSC (Mauritius). The ASIC and CySEC entities are considered tier-1 and tier-2 regulators respectively and enforce stricter client protections, including segregated client funds held at tier-1 banks and negative balance protection. Clients onboarded through offshore entities may have fewer protections.

Platform experience

FP Markets supports MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView, and the Iress platform for share trading. Web and mobile versions are available for MT4, MT5, and cTrader, and FP Markets provides iOS and Android apps. A free demo account loaded with USD 100,000 in virtual funds is available and can be used across supported platforms, though demo accounts are archived after 30 days of inactivity. The broker offers a VPS service free of charge to MT4 and MT5 users who trade sufficient monthly volume.

Pros and cons

FP Markets' main advantages are its Raw ECN account with spreads from 0.0 pips, regulation under ASIC and CySEC, a broad instrument range of 10,000+ assets, multiple professional trading platforms, and the absence of deposit, withdrawal, and inactivity fees. The main drawbacks are the Iress platform's conditional monthly fee, the expiry of demo accounts after 30 days of inactivity, the absence of FCA regulation, geographic restrictions for US, Japanese, and New Zealand residents, and educational resources that are less comprehensive than those offered by some larger competitors.