Safety first
FP Markets review
Who regulates FP Markets, under which licence, and what that means for your money.
Last checked
FP Markets offers some protection if it fails and not all of it, which is the ordinary offshore trade-off: you gain leverage and lose the safety net. Regulated by ASIC (AFSL 286354); CySEC (371/18); FSCA (FSP 50926); Seychelles FSA (SD130); Mauritius FSC (GB21026264); CMA Kenya, offering MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView, IRESS.
Our rating
- Regulation9.4
- Costs8.9
- Platforms9.1
- Markets8.4
- Support6.5
- Education5.1
One rating, identical across our sites - only the way it is shown changes. It averages six assessments: regulation, trading costs, platforms, markets, support and education.
Regulation and safety
- Regulated by
- ASIC (AFSL 286354); CySEC (371/18); FSCA (FSP 50926); Seychelles FSA (SD130); Mauritius FSC (GB21026264); CMA Kenya
- Regulator tier
- Tier 1
- Register entry
- ASIC Professional Registers, AFSL 286354
- Client money segregated
- Yes
- Held at
- Major regulated banking institutions
- Negative balance protection
- Yes, retail clients
- Compensation scheme
- ICF up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients; no statutory investor compensation scheme under ASIC/Seychelles entities
- Audited by
- Independent external auditors
- Not available to
- Afghanistan, Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Liberia, Libya, Myanmar, Palestine, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, United States, and FATF/EU/UN-sanctioned jurisdictions
The licence is what decides where your money sits and who is obliged to do something about it.
FP Markets holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC and CySEC. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.
It also operates an offshore entity (FSC and FSA). Which one you are onboarded to depends on where you live, and the two carry very different protections - worth confirming before you deposit.
ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.
CySEC licences passport across the EU and follow the 1:30 retail leverage cap, with the Investor Compensation Fund covering eligible claims.
The FSCA licenses derivative providers in South Africa without a fixed retail leverage cap, so headline leverage is often higher than an FCA or ASIC entity may offer.
Check the licence yourself: ASIC Connect, the CySEC register of investment firms, the FSCA list of regulated entities, the Seychelles FSA list of regulated entities, the Mauritius FSC register of licensees.
The company behind the brand
- Legal entity
- First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd
- Company number
- ABN 16 112 600 281
- Headquarters
- Sydney, Australia
- Founded
- 2005
- Publicly listed
- No
- Parent company
- Independent
- Employees
- 200+
- Also trades as
- FP Markets; First Prudential Markets
What it costs to trade
- Spread from
- 0.0 pips
- EUR/USD spread
- Approx. 0.1 pips, Raw
- GBP/USD spread
- Approx. 0.3 pips, Raw
- Commission
- US$3 per side / US$6 round turn, Raw
- All-in cost, EUR/USD
- Approx. 0.7 pips
- Spread type
- Variable
- Overnight swap
- Both: overnight swaps apply; Islamic accounts available
- Currency conversion
- Conversion at FP Markets' prevailing exchange rate
Cost is the last thing to weigh here, and never the thing that should decide it.
A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.
Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.
FP Markets lists a minimum deposit of $100. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.
Platforms and tools
- Platforms
- MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView, IRESS
- Own platform
- No
- Mobile app
- Third-party
- Browser trading
- Yes
- Automated trading
- Yes; EAs, automated trading and VPS supported
- Copy trading
- Yes, FP Markets Copy Trading
- Indicators
- 100+ via TradingView; 30+ MT4; 38+ MT5
- Third-party tools
- TradingView, Autochartist, Trading Central, VPS, IRESS
- API access
- Yes, FIX API/institutional connectivity
MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.
MetaTrader 5 handles more asset classes and order types than MT4, but expert advisors are not compatible between the two - an MT4 EA will not run on it.
cTrader shows depth of market and level II pricing, and is usually paired with raw-spread accounts rather than fixed-spread ones.
TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.
Markets and execution
- Markets
- Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Metals, ETFs, Bonds, Cryptocurrencies
- Currency pairs
- 70+
- Total instruments
- 10,000+
- Crypto CFDs
- Yes
- Maximum leverage
- 1:30
- Execution model
- ECN pricing / no dealing desk
- Execution speed
- Under 8ms
- Order types
- Market, limit, stop, stop-limit, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop
- Servers
- Equinix NY4, New York
Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.
FP Markets covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, metals, etfs, bonds, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.
Funding options: visa, mastercard, bank transfer, skrill, neteller, paypal, cryptocurrency, broker-to-broker transfer and regional methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.
Accounts
- Minimum deposit
- $100
- Account types
- Standard, Raw, IRESS, Islamic, Professional/Wholesale, Demo
- Account currencies
- AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, CAD, CHF, JPY, NZD, HKD
- Islamic account
- Yes
- Demo account
- Yes
- Professional account
- Yes
- Minimum trade size
- 0.01 lots
- Time to open
- Typically a few minutes
Deposits and withdrawals
- Deposit methods
- Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, cryptocurrency, broker-to-broker transfer and regional methods
- Withdrawal methods
- Visa/Mastercard, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, crypto and applicable original funding methods
- Deposit time
- Instant for cards and most e-wallets; crypto up to 1 hour; bank transfers typically 1-3 business days
- Withdrawal time
- Typically processed within 1 business day; bank transfers may require an additional 1-3 business days
- Minimum withdrawal
- No general minimum
- Local payment methods
- BPAY; PayID; POLi and various region-specific local banking/payment methods
Support and education
- Support hours
- 24/7
- Contact channels
- Live chat, email, phone
- Languages
- Multilingual
- Telephone
- +61 2 8252 6800
- support@fpmarkets.com.au
- Live chat response
- Average 21 seconds
- Education
- Extensive: FP Markets Academy, courses, ebooks, webinars, videos, tutorials and trading guides
- Research
- Extensive: market analysis, Trading Central, Autochartist, technical/fundamental analysis and trading tools
Questions people ask about FP Markets
What happens to my money if FP Markets goes bust?
FP Markets sits behind ICF up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients; no statutory investor compensation scheme under ASIC/Seychelles entities. A scheme covers eligible clients of the entity that holds the licence, so the entity you were onboarded to decides whether it covers you.
Which bank actually holds client money at FP Markets?
FP Markets holds client money with Major regulated banking institutions, in accounts kept separate from the firm's own. Almost no comparison site publishes this, and it is the thing that decides how quickly you would see your money again if the broker failed.
Can I lose more than I deposit with FP Markets?
FP Markets provides negative balance protection, recorded as yes, retail clients. So it exists and it does not reach every client, and which entity you were onboarded to decides whether it reaches you.