FOREX.com, established by Mark Galant in 1999 in the United States, is a forex brokerage firm headquartered in New Jersey, USA. The company provides trading services for CFDs, forex, commodities, indices, stocks, bonds, gold, silver, digital assets, and futures to clients worldwide. Its official website supports only Simplified Chinese and English languages.
FOREX.com is part of Gain Capital Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GCAP), which was acquired by StoneX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SNEX) in February 2020.
Registration and Regulatory Information:
FOREX.com claims on its official website to be registered and regulated in eight different countries and regions, including the UK, USA, Canada, Cyprus, Cayman Islands, Japan, Singapore, etc. However, in some of the stated regions, it is registered and regulated under its parent company.
In the UK, no registration or regulatory information for FOREX.com can be found with the FCA, but through StoneX Financial Ltd, the parent company, FOREX.com is recognized as an authorized entity. It's important to note that the parent company is partially regulated under the FCA, with some services restricted to professional institutions rather than retail users.
In Cyprus, the regulatory registration under the parent company explicitly includes FOREX.com.
In Canada, relevant registration information can be found on the official website of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC).
Regulatory registration and information can mostly be found for FOREX.com and its parent company in other regions as well.
Account Types and Registration:
FOREX.com offers five different account types, including two special ones: joint accounts and corporate accounts, for which specific details are not disclosed. The other three are standard accounts, raw pricing accounts, and MetaTrader platform accounts.
The standard, raw pricing, and MT platform accounts have various features and parameters. Only the standard account offers a demo account; the other two have only real accounts.
The standard account doesn’t reveal specific spreads and mentions no hidden fees. The raw pricing account charges a commission of $7 per $100,000, with a primary currency spread of 0.0; the MT account does not charge any commission.
Leverage:
FOREX.com does not disclose leverage information on its website, such as which accounts can use leverage or the maximum leverage ratio. Instead, various margin requirements are offered depending on the type of forex, requiring some calculation by the user to figure out the leverage ratio.
It’s important to note that leverage can amplify both gains and risks, so it should be used cautiously.
Trading Products:
According to the information on the FOREX.com website, the company offers forex and a limited range of commodities. However, real-time spreads and buy-sell prices are provided for each type of trade.
Deposits and Withdrawals:
FOREX.com publicly provides information on deposits and withdrawals methods on its website, which include bank wire, debit cards, and wire transfers. Different channels have different limits and processing times.
It’s important to note that withdrawals must go back to the original source rather than being freely chosen.
Trading Software:
FOREX.com uses both its proprietary platform and the MT4 platform as trading software, providing corresponding access. Both the proprietary and MT4 platforms support PC, Android, and iOS.
Customer Support:
FOREX.com’s official website offers various contact methods, including online chat, phone, email, and a physical address, which can meet different user needs.
Summary:
As a forex broker, FOREX.com provides a wide variety of forex types for trading and offers both proprietary and MT4 trading platforms. The customer support is commendable, and there are various types of accounts available, with transparent regulation. However, the platform still has some shortcomings, such as a lack of detailed parameters for different account types, specific deposit and withdrawal data, and a limited selection of trading products.
