17 Best Day Trading Forex Brokers and Platforms - ( Reviewed ) 2024 - SA Shares (2024)

To follow a day trading strategy effectively, you will need to choose an effective Forex trading platform. In this list we provide the 17 best day trading brokers and platforms to choose from in 2024.

For day trading in South Africa, you need a combination of low-cost trades coupled with a feature-rich trading platform with great trading tools.

Price isn’t everything; therefore, many Forex day traders are willing to pay more to get the tools they need to trade more efficiently.

When deciding to use day trading strategies in Forex it is very important to pick a platform and day trading broker that have a combination of great tools, platforms that have lots of features and low-cost trades.

The list is not in any specific order but is a comprehensive resource for you to compare from.

Alpari

Although established in 1998, Alpari relaunched in 2014 and is based in, and regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of the Republic of Mauritius.

Alpari gives their traders access to more than 250 markets in Forex, Stocks, Indices, Metals and Cryptocurrencies.

They offer both the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms on Desktop, Web and Mobile formats.

Day trading for beginners and experienced traders will find a good fit with Alpari with demo accounts and educational resources as well as boasting more than $1.3 trillion in trading turnover per year.

List of the 10 Best Day Trading Forex Brokers and Platforms for South Africans (2020)

1. 🥇 Alpari
2. 🥈 FXTM (Forex Time)
3. 🥉 FP Markets
4. XM
5. GO Markets
6. AvaTrade
7. Exness
8. Hotforex
9. Interactive Brokers
10. Plus500

Alpari Features

• Maximum leverage as high as 1000 to 1
• Forex spot trading
• Over 60 Forex currency pairs and crosses available for day trading
• Choice between ECN and market-maker execution models
• Online video resources
• Forex signals: AutoChartist and Trading Central
• Forex analytics from a variety of providers

Pros and Cons of Alpari

FXTM (ForexTime)

FXTM was founded in 2012 with offices in major cities like London, Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, China, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, India and Nigeria.

All central operations are directed from FXTM’s five story tower located in Cyprus.

They provide day trading simulator for practicing strategies through their demo account.

FXTM is a licensed and well-regulated broker worldwide, from the UK, South Africa, Belize, Cyprus and Mauritius as examples.

They also boast an impressive list of awards making Forex day trading with FXTM a safe journey.

FXTM offers tight spreads, trading in all currency pairs as well as a wide range of other financial products and derivatives.

Features

• Allows hedging
• Great selection of educational tools
• Low stock index CFD fees
• Spreads as low as 0.1 pip for a standard account and 0 pips for ECN based trading accounts

Pros and Cons

FP Markets

FP Markets was founded in 2005 and it is an Australian CFD and Forex broker. It is regulated by the Australian ASIC and the Cypriot CySEC.

They offer MT4, MT5 platforms as well as over 50 currency pairs, gold, silver, CFDs, Indices, stocks and cryptos to trade with.

Features

• Leverage is 500:1 when trading currency
• Offer Direct Markets Access (DMA)
• Demo Account for beginning traders
• 50 plus currency pairings to trade

Pros and Cons

XM

XM Global was established in 2017, is used by over 70,000 traders and is regulated by the International Financial Services Commission.

XM offers two trading platforms which are accessible from both real and demo accounts; both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, the most widely used platforms in trading.

They offer more than 1000 financial instruments which includes Forex Trading, Stocks CFDs, Commodities CFDs, Equity Indices CFDs, Precious Metals CFDs and Energies CFDs.

Forex trading is available on over 55 pairs.

Highly awarded brokerage firm with a few of their recent awards being: Best FX Service Provider for 2024 awarded by City of Wealth Management Awards 2024, Best Customer Service Global 2019 awarded by Capital Finance International Magazine, Best Market Research and Education Global 2019 awarded by Capital Finance International Magazine, and Best FX Service Provider awarded by City of London Wealth Management Awards 2019

Features

• Allows scalping
• Offers negative balance protection
• Low min deposit
• Offers Negative Balance Protection
• Allows Hedging

Pros and Cons

GO Markets

GO Markets was established in 2006 and is one of the leading and trusted Australian regulated brokers and has offices in Melbourne, London, Taipei and Hong Kong.

GO Markets currently offers more than 350 tradeable CFD instruments including Forex, Shares, Indices and Commodities and Cryptocurrencies.

Features

• Allows hedging
• Allows scalping
• Offers STP
• Offers Negative Balance Protection
• Used by over 10,000 traders

Pros and Cons

AvaTrade

AvaTrade was founded in 2006 with its headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.

The company now has four offices around the world, located in Japan, Australia, Ireland, and the British Virgin Islands with sales offices also in Paris, Milan, Madrid, Mongolia, Beijing, Nigeria, Santiago, and Johannesburg.

AvaTrade is regulated in Europe, the British Virgin Islands, Australia, Japan, and South Africa.

AvaTrade offers more than 250 financial instruments which include more than 60 currency pairs, major stock indices, cryptocurrencies, commodities, bonds, individual shares and ETFs.

Features

• A range of automated trading platforms and EA compatibility
• Client funds are held in segregated accounts for increased security
• Desktop, tablet, mobile and web based trading with MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and AvaTradeGO
• Competitive spreads offering
• Trading websites in more than 20 languages

Pros and Cons

Exness

The Exness Group was founded in 2008 in St. Petersburg, Russia and has licences from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Seychelles.

The Exness Group has a monthly trading volume of more than $180 billion, as well as 15,000 new accounts opened each month, with more than 80,000 active traders.

Their website is available in 23 different languages including English, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Thai, Bengali, Indonesian, and Malay with 24/5 customer support in 13 languages.

They offer access to more than 120 financial instruments to trade across which include Forex, Crypto, Stocks and Indices. In Forex they offer 120 currency pairs to choose from.

Features

• Very cool user friendly and modern website
• Tight spreads from 0.1 pips
• No hidden commissions or fees
• Instant withdrawal of funds
• Client funds kept in segregated accounts
• Tight spreads
• Copy trading system

Pros and Cons

HotForex

HotForex was founded in 2010 and has its headquarters in Cyprus with several global satellite offices in Dubai, South Africa and offshore entities in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

They offer 6 core trading accounts and every account type offers commission-free trading for Forex pairs.

Users can access 150+ trading instruments across Forex, Commodities, Indices, Shares, Bonds, CFDs and Cryptocurrency.

In 2015 the company was listed as on the Top 100 Companies by World Finance Magazine and the received the award for Business Excellence.

Features

• Known for great technology
• Numerous industry awards garnered
• Great range of markets
• Offers Negative Balance Protection
• Additional Civil Liability Insurance
• Lots of premium MetaTrader tools offered

Pros and Cons

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers was founded in 1978 and is one of the biggest US-based discount brokers.

The broker is regulated by several financial authorities globally, including the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

They offer day trading in stocks, options, futures, Forex and bonds in over 125 markets in 31 countries.

Features

• Over 4,300 no-transaction fee mutual funds
• Strong research and tools
• NerdWallet users who sign up for IBKR Pro get a 0.25 percentage point discount on margin rates.
• Advanced and smart order router
• Mutual Fund Replicator which finds lower-cost exchange traded funds

Pros and Cons

TradeStation

TradeStation is a US stockbroker founded in 1982 and based in Florida. They are best known for their top-notch analysis software and electronic trading platform.

A brokerage, by legacy, was only for professional brokers and money managers and has always been a top pick with serious investors that want a truly professional Forex day trading experience.

Now, TradeStation has opened up their brokerage firm to all traders, giving them access to their incredible tools. To support this, they cut trading costs to $0 and lowered the minimum investment to $0 for its new TS GO offering

TradeStation is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)

Features

• Stable platform has very little downtime
• Comprehensive research
• Portfolio Maestro analyzes performance in a variety of ways
• Guaranteed stop loss
• Offers Negative Balance Protection

Pros and Cons

Plus500

Plus500 is a CFD provider based in Israel founded in 2008, offers a wide range of financial markets with relatively low spreads and no commissions. They are a no-frills CFD provider, not offering a lot of extra services but are solid in what they do offer.

The company currently offers its portfolio of over 2800 instruments and their platforms are user intuitive while offering good advanced tools

Plus500AU Pty Ltd (ACN 153301681), licensed by: ASIC in Australia AFSL #417727. FMA in New Zealand FSP #486026, Authorised Financial Services Provider in South Africa FSP #47546

Features

• Offers access to over 2,800 trading instruments
• Very low spreads and commissions
• Low min deposit
• Guaranteed stop loss
• Offers Negative Balance Protection

Pros and Cons

Pepperstone

Pepperstone is an Australian Forex broker founded in 2010. In 2015 they opened a London office as well.

Pepperstone offers over 57,000 trading clients and boast an average daily transaction size of $12.55 billion and is regulated by two top-tier financial authorities, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Features

• Offers a range of online trading platforms
• Low min deposit
• Social copy trading with MirrorTrader and RoboX platform from Tradency, the ZuluTrade platform, and myFxbook for MT4
• Technical analysis including the Boris & Kathy FX Weekly analysis report

Pros and Cons

IC Markets

International Capital Markets Pty Ltd (IC Markets) was founded in 2007 with a team of financial professionals who had the vision to bridge the gap existing between retail and institutional clients.

One of the ways they do this is by being an ECN broker, which means that there is a no-dealing-desk. This also means they offer tight spreads in its offering of 63 Forex pairs and 41 CFDs on indices, metals, cryptocurrencies and futures

IC Markets is based in Sydney and acquired an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in 2009.

IC Markets offers several day trading platforms to select from including MetaTrader4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), as well as the suite of cTrader platforms SpotWare System.

All their platforms make use of their own high-level web security.

Features

• Great variety of Educational materials
• Selection of sophisticated trading platforms
• Low min deposit
• True ECN broker with institutional grade liquidity
• Wide range of tradeable products

Pros and Cons

Forex.com

Forex.com was established in 2001 and is the brand name of GAIN Capital, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and is a global FX and CFD broker.

With over 40,000 traders they are regulated by several financial authorities, including the top-tier Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

FOREX.com has garnered many awards and in 2024 it has earned Best in Class (top 7) awards for numerous categories including Offering of Investments, Commissions & Fees, Education, Professional Trading, Crypto Trading, Ease of Use, and Overall.

They offer over 4,500 CFD instruments to trade with and they allow access to over 180 markets which include Forex pairs, stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies and commodities.

Features

• Diverse technical research tools
• TradingView charts built into platform
• Great mobile and desktop functionality
• Trade directly from charts, and use customisable drawing tools and indicators
• Premium trader resources

Pros and Cons

eToro

eToro was founded in 2007 in Tel Aviv, Israel. eToro has 10 Million traders and made its name through its social trading platform that allows users to copy the trades of other investors.

In fact, in the eToro social community, traders can become “leaders” and earn from leading other traders that follow and copy their trades.

The firm started off as a broker that only offered Forex trading and has since expanded its product offerings to include cryptocurrencies, commodities, stocks and market indices and now boast more than 10 million users in 140 countries worldwide

Features

• Premier Social trading/Copy trading platform and community
• Huge cryptocurrency offering
• Robust charting
• Offers access to 15 cryptocurrencies
• Free stock and ETF trading in Europe

Pros and Cons

XTB

XTB was founded in 2002 and has offices in more than 13 countries including the UK, Poland, Germany, France and Turkey with headquarters based in London and Warsaw.

They offer CFD, Crypto and Forex trading on their award-winning trading platform xStation, and is regulated by the top-tier FCA.

The company offers excellent day trading conditions, a wide range of financial instruments through its standard and pro account types.

Features

• Lots of educational materials offered
• Fully digital account opening and trading
• Offers Negative Balance Protection
• Online Trading Academy – free material to educate new clients
• Mobile Trade Alert servicefor free
• Innovative platform includes video tutorials, a stocks screener, sentiment heatmaps and real-time performance stats
• Available across desktop, tablet, mobile, and even smartwatch

Pros and Cons

Axi

Axi was founded in 2007 and is based in Australia along with offices in London, which was opened in 2012.

Axi has more than 40,000 registered traders in over 100 countries and boasts a monthly client trading volume of around $100 billion.

They are a solid broker for day trading strategies and have an award-winning customer services team.

Features

• Allows hedging
• Low spreads starting from 0.0 pips
• Allows scalping
• Strong leverage up to 400:1
• Wide range of Forex Markets

Pros and Cons

In conclusion

Day trading is the trading practice of buying and selling financial instruments within a single trading day. That is buying at the start of the trading day, closing out positions at the end of each day and starting again from scratch the next trading day.

Day trading is most common in the Forex and stock markets. It is a short short-term trading strategy making the most of small price movements in highly liquid stocks or currencies.

Some of the day trading strategies include:

Scalping, which focuses on making numerous small profits on small prices changes throughout the day

Range trading, which primarily uses support and resistance levels to determine their buy and sell decisions

News-based trading, which capitalizes on the opportunities to trade because of volatility in the market that may stem from any current news events

High-frequency trading (HFT) strategies that use sophisticated algorithms that capitalize on small or short-term market inefficiencies

Day trading takes time and focus with the best broker and platform. In this article we looked at the best Day Trading brokers and Platforms on the market as well as the ones we believe are worth investigating further, according to research in South Africa.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is day trading illegal?

No.

Who are the best day trading forex brokers?

Here is a list of the 17 Best Day Trading Forex Brokers.

Are day traders more successful?

Most of them are not.

Can you make a living off day trading?

It is possible, but very few do.

Who is the richest day trader?

Paul Tudor Jones with a net worth at $5.1 billion (2020)