Top Forex Trading Broker List | Broker Rating 2022
There are the best ways to save savings and increase capital is to invest in stocks, bonds, funds and other assets through a brokerage account. But Russian law prohibits individuals from directly trading on exchanges like the Moscow Exchange.
Transactions can only be concluded by legal entities that have received a license to conduct brokerage activities. Therefore, ordinary people have to turn to a broker who acts as an intermediary and makes it possible to purchase shares on the stock market, as well as currency, commodity assets, bonds. The article provides a rating of the best brokers and tells how to choose a reliable brokerage company.
What you need to know about working with a broker
A broker is a licensed “intermediary” between a trader and an exchange. He makes transactions with assets, whether securities or currencies, on behalf of the investor (trader). The main tasks of a broker are:
Execution of client orders to conclude transactions.
Registration of securities in the name of the client.
Drawing up reports, which indicate the operations performed, sign the order of movement of funds on the client account.
Calculation and transfer of taxes on the profit received by the investor (although under Russian laws, in some cases, the obligation to pay personal income tax is shifted directly to the client, for example, when receiving dividends from foreign shares or during successful currency transactions).
Also, brokers, in order to expand the range of services and offer investors more favorable conditions, can:
Provide credit for the purchase of securities or currency.
Compile investment portfolios.
Develop trading strategies.
Publish analytical data, news reviews.
Provide technical and fundamental analysis tools.
Provide individual services - personally advise on financial management, conclude a trust management agreement.
Which broker to choose in 2023
Below is a rating of brokerage companies available in Russia that have an excellent reputation and provide quality service.
1.Capital.com
The broker has several licenses issued by the world's leading regulators. Therefore, the company's activities strictly comply with international laws. To protect investor funds as much as possible, Capital.com:
Keeps clients' money in separate accounts;
Uses modern encryption protocols, which does not allow attackers to get to money, assets, personal data of users;
Provides negative balance protection.
Also, the advantages of a broker occupying the highest line of the rating include:
A very convenient, easy-to-learn platform for investment and speculation. The interfaces of both the mobile application and the computer program are so simple and intuitive that even beginners who have never dealt with financial markets before can easily understand all the nuances.
A wide range of assets for investment - from shares of Russian and foreign enterprises to currency pairs. With Capital.com, a trader can easily diversify their investment portfolio and thus protect themselves from serious losses.
Complete absence of trading commission and any hidden fees.
Providing a variety of educational materials, fresh financial analytics, tools for analysis.
2. AvaTrade
This company is also licensed by regulators in different countries, which guarantees compliance with strict international standards for brokerage. Trading through AvaTrade is profitable for investors:
Broker clients get access to a wide range of assets and can earn on international currencies, cryptocurrencies, contracts for difference in stock prices, government bonds, commodities, indices, exchange-traded funds.
Users have automatic protection against a zero deposit balance and can optionally activate the AvaProtect option, which will protect traders from losses for some time after the completion of transactions.
Deposits and withdrawals are made without delay.
The broker provides access to different trading platforms, which gives investors the opportunity to find the most convenient option.
Support works around the clock and promptly answers all customer questions.
Beginners have the opportunity to trade on a demo account, learn the terminology, principles of working with trading terminals, the rules for placing protective orders, and how to use fundamental and technical analysis tools.
Experienced traders are given access to detailed analysis of trading strategies.
3. Tinkoff Investments
The company is one of the largest in terms of the number of active Russian users. Tinkoff.Investments offers its clients two tariff plans - "Investor" and "Trader". In the first case, the user is not charged a service fee, but an increased trading commission is charged, so this tariff is suitable for people who prefer investments on a “buy and hold” basis.
In the second case, everything happens the other way around - the commission is small, but you have to pay for the service. This tariff plan suits active traders.
The broker has:
Convenient mobile application;
Quality training programs;
Round the clock support;
Fast deposit and withdrawal of money.
And the cons of Tinkoff. Investments are:
lack of options;
The need to obtain a Tinkoff bank debit card to use a brokerage account.
4. VTB
This broker offers Russian clients two basic plans - "My Online" and "Professional Standard". The first option is suitable for novice investors who are ready to invest at least 1000 rubles, and the second option is for people who already have experience in trading on the stock exchange and are going to invest large amounts.
The advantages of a VTB broker include:
High reliability;
Low trading commissions (and in the Professional Standard plan, they become even lower when the trader is actively trading and shows a high turnover on transactions);o service fee for the My Online tariff;
Own investment products.
Among the shortcomings, VTB users usually note:
Poor technical support - you have to wait a very long time for a response;
Long withdrawal time.
5. Sberbank
The broker allows you to choose from two tariff plans - "Independent" and "Investment". In the first case, the investor is provided with minimal analytics, but the commissions turn out to be small even with a small turnover of transactions. And the “Investment” tariff is intended for those who want to receive maximum analytical support on financial instruments, daily reviews from leading industry experts.
Advantages of Sberbank:
Maximum reliability;
Free account maintenance;
Debugged software;
Fast transactions between accounts.
Minuses:
- lack of access to the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, which excludes the possibility of buying a number of securities (for example, Tesla shares will not be available);
Difficulties with technical support - it is difficult to get through to a living person, and Sberbank employees do not always give a competent answer.
6. Finam
The company offers two tariffs - "Strategist" and "Investor". The first tariff plan with no subscription fee, with higher interest per trade and the cost of contracts for futures or options, is intended for long-term investors. And the second tariff is suitable for users who often make transactions.
The advantages of the Finam broker are:
Stable operation of the terminal and mobile application;
A large selection of assets, access to foreign markets;
Providing high-quality analytics and training;
Convenient tools and services that help you invest your funds wisely.
Among the disadvantages of Finam can be noted:
Relatively high rates;
Taking additional commissions for a number of operations (for example, for the accrual of dividends and the receipt of coupon income on a brokerage account).
7. Broker Freedom Finance
The broker offers several tariff plans - from "Standard", suitable for most users, to "Universal", intended only for those clients who have confirmed the status of a qualified investor.
The advantages of the Freedom Finance broker include the fact that:
clients have access to shares of companies from all over the world, a large selection of trading instruments is provided;
Qualified investors can participate in numerous IPOs;
The company's experts give competent advice on simple and complex investment strategies;
Trading commission is low.
Of the minuses of Freedom Finance, it can be noted that:
The withdrawal of money from the brokerage account is delayed due to the signing of additional documents;
access to the Quik terminal is available for a fee.
8. Alfa Capital
This management company does not just provide intermediary services, but assumes all obligations for securities transactions, that is, the choice of individual products does not depend on the client in any way. Therefore, Alfa Capital is suitable only for those investors who absolutely do not want to spend their time studying the markets.
Benefits of a management company:
Low entry threshold;
No need to evaluate individual papers;
Reliability of investments.
And the disadvantages include the fact that Alfa Capital:
"bites off" a significant piece of the investor's profit as a management fee, while in the event of a loss, no compensation is due to the client;
Offers a small selection of investment programs.
Comparison of Brokers: What to Consider When Choosing
You can choose a reliable broker from the rating above, or you can find a suitable organization on your own, evaluating the most significant parameters. Here is a list of the 10 most important characteristics:
Availability of a license for the right to conduct brokerage activities
To obtain permission, the broker needs to prove its reliability - to show the availability of a sufficient amount of its own funds, to ensure the protection of clients' personal data, to guarantee the safety of the software, and so on. A company that is not regulated by anyone, with a probability of 100%, will turn out to be the so-called "black kitchen".
In this case, all trading operations are carried out within the company, and there is no access to real exchanges. “Kitchens” earn not on the provision of services, but on the clients themselves - the more money the user loses, the higher will be the earnings of a company that does not have a license and does not officially report to the regulator.
Length of Time in The Stock Market
It is desirable that the broker has already worked for at least three years. Traders cooperating with a company that has only recently acquired the right to engage in brokerage activities are likely to encounter a number of problems - "raw" software, difficulties in obtaining technical assistance, delays in the withdrawal of earned money and others.
Therefore, it is better to sign an agreement with an already time-tested broker. In addition, large, long-established companies are unlikely to commit unauthorized actions with client funds or otherwise violate the law.
Firstly, they are under the close supervision of the Central Bank and other regulatory bodies, so all fraud will be visible. And in case of suspicion, the Central Bank will simply suspend the license.
Secondly, large brokers have already gained a serious reputation, and no one wants to lose it overnight. Such reputational losses lead to a sharp outflow of client funds and become the cause of the collapse of the company.
Brokers Commission Rates
Commission and spread are the main earnings of a broker. Therefore, it is beneficial for organizations to install them higher. And even for those clients who plan to invest money for a long time and are not going to make frequent transactions, a high commission can “eat up” a significant part of the profit.
And for traders who want to often conduct trading operations, the payment of a large commission will turn out to be fatal at all. Therefore, it is worth giving preference to brokers with low or even no trading commission.
It is also worth considering that a commission can be taken not only for transactions, but also for other actions, for example, for replenishing a deposit, withdrawing earned funds, and having activity on the account for a certain period of time. Therefore, before signing the contract, you should carefully study the tariff plans.
Convenience of Working With Terminals and Mobile Applications of The Broker
The software should be understandable to the user, work without delays and interruptions, easily provide access to the necessary services, such as a deal calculator, a price chart, and others. To pre-evaluate the work of the software, you should read the reviews of other users.
Minimum Deposit
This parameter is important for those who do not have a solid initial capital. And although recently most brokers focus on small clients and make the entry threshold small (several thousand or even hundreds of rubles), commissions for such a tariff plan may turn out to be overpriced. Therefore, it is important for a novice investor to check the amount of the deposit and make sure that even with a small trade, you will not have to pay a decent reward to the broker.
Available Markets
Not every Russian broker provides access to popular foreign securities. Therefore, if you want to invest in US stocks, you should check that the broker has access to them. Or it is better to immediately contact a foreign brokerage company that directly interacts with the American stock exchanges. In this case, the choice of stock market securities will be much larger.
Having a Demo Account
Before investing your own funds, you should first try trading with virtual money through a demo account. And only after understanding the mechanisms of trading and learning how to get a positive result, you can move on to investing real money.
Access to technical and fundamental analysis tools, analyst forecasts, global financial news
The more information an investor has, the more informed decision he is able to make. Therefore, it is desirable that the broker offers advanced analytics. At the same time, it is good when all data and information is easily accessible and presented in a visual form. This is especially important for active traders who make a lot of trading operations during the day. Spending time searching for information and understanding the complex presentation of the material will lead to the fact that the information will lose its relevance.
Availability of Free Education
This criterion is important primarily for beginners, who are still vaguely aware of the investment opportunities. And with the help of detailed explanations and illustrative examples, inexperienced traders will be able to quickly find the most winning strategy. However, the use of quality free educational materials will also be useful for those who have already figured out the basics and want to use more advanced trading tools.
Having Good Technical Support
It is important that competent specialists respond and do it quickly. It is advisable to try to contact technical support even before concluding a contract and evaluate the quality of the work of employees. If the bot constantly answers, and it is difficult to get through to live specialists, if employees give vague answers to the questions posed, you can look for a broker who can set up a support service.
After evaluating the key characteristics, it is worth paying attention to the distinctive features of a particular broker. Some companies may have additional requirements for customers. For example, Tinkoff.Investments requires a debit card from the bank of the same name.
It is also advisable not to be lazy and review the risk notice that the organization offers to sign. It details the reasons for which an investor may lose money, and indicates in which cases the broker does not bear any responsibility for this. Risk communication should be more or less standard. And if a company introduces exotic items into it, then this can become a “bell” signaling the unreliability of the broker.
Common Mistakes When Choosing a Broker
New investors often make one of the following mistakes:
Choose a brokerage organization based on only one parameter. No matter how important the criterion is, the broker must be evaluated by a combination of characteristics.
Blindly rely on the opinion of an enthusiastic friend. Usually those people who were able to make good money in a short time speak with great enthusiasm about the broker. But this income may turn out to be a mere accident, and not the merit of a brokerage organization.
They believe advertising and loud statements. A broker who shouts about himself on every corner that he is out of competition will not necessarily be the best. On the contrary, overly laudatory advertising and silence about the risks of trading usually signal that the company wants to earn in the short term, and long-term business reputation does not interest it at all.
Follow the "forced" choice. For example, a bank persistently invites its client to open a brokerage account. If a person agrees, then after a while he may find that he pays unimaginable commissions and receives inferior service.
How Broker and Client Interact
To start working on the exchange, the client must conclude an agreement with the broker, having previously studied its conditions. It is very easy to get acquainted with the terms of cooperation with a broker - almost any of them publishes the terms of a standard contract on their website. They describe in detail the tariff scale, indicating the size of commissions for various operations and transaction limits. You just have to choose the most suitable and favorable conditions.
The second stage is directly opening a brokerage account and depositing funds into it. It is worth noting that there are a fairly large number of types of such accounts, which vary depending on the type of activity, investment or trading volumes, and so on. This is where the individual approach comes into play.
After opening an account and depositing funds to it, you can start trading. As mentioned earlier, trading takes place by issuing personal instructions to the broker to carry out operations - buying or selling assets. There are several methods for submitting such orders: online, via a phone call or a mobile trading application.
After receiving such an order, the broker immediately executes it, carrying out an operation on the stock market itself. In this case, the amount of the transaction itself is deducted from the client, plus a commission for its completion.
The client can quickly withdraw the profit received from transactions or investments to his bank account. In addition, the broker takes care of the calculation and payment of your 13% income tax.
In general, the scheme of cooperation between an individual and a broker is as follows:
Signing an agreement.
Opening and replenishment of an account.
Giving orders to buy or sell.
Execution of an operation by a brokerage organization.
Crediting stocks, bonds and other securities to the client account in case of their purchase or receipt of money on the deposit if the assets were sold.
Withdrawal of earned funds.
To fulfill the client's order:
The broker sends the received application to the exchange for official registration of the transaction.
The completed transaction is checked by the National Clearing Center and sends data on the owner of the securities to the National Settlement Depository.
NSD sends the data to the broker and the depository where the client's papers are kept.
Answers to Frequently asked Questions
Can I open an account with several brokers at once?
Yes. The number of intermediaries through which a Russian citizen makes transactions on the stock exchanges can be any. However, a person should have only one IIS. If the broker with which the IIS is opened ceases to suit, then this account will either have to be transferred to another company, or closed and then reopened (but it must be remembered that when it is closed, in some cases, all tax benefits may disappear).
Which account is more profitable to open - regular or IIS?
For tax residents of Russia, when opening an individual investment account, preferential taxation begins to apply. IIS owners can either not pay personal income tax on income, or apply for a tax deduction, but its amount should not exceed 52 thousand rubles a year.
But IIS also has serious disadvantages: firstly, in order to receive the maximum deduction, you will have to draw up numerous additional documents and deposit at least 400 thousand rubles annually into this account, and secondly, it will be impossible to withdraw money at any time - you will need to wait at least 3 of the year.
In addition, the government plans to abolish in the near future IIA tax incentives for the purchase of foreign shares and bonds. Therefore, in the end it turns out to be more profitable not to bother, but to open a regular brokerage account.
Is money in a brokerage account insured?
No, in Russia the Deposit Insurance Agency does not compensate for the loss of funds of the broker's clients. However, if the license is revoked from the brokerage company or even in the event of bankruptcy of the broker, all the investor's securities will be preserved, since they are held separately in a special depository.
Therefore, if a trader is not sure about the reliability of a brokerage organization, it is better for him not to keep large amounts on his account, but to invest them in the purchase of assets. And the best option is to trust your funds to large, reliable companies. Also, an additional advantage will be that the broker has introduced the segregation of its own funds and client money. In this case, both the assets and the user's money will be preserved in any case.
Results
USA citizens can buy and sell securities only through an intermediary - a broker. It is important to choose a brokerage organization that will be reliable, provide access to various assets, provide convenient trading conditions, will not charge a high commission, and will help in case of difficulties. You can try to find such a company on your own or use the ranked rating of brokers posted in the article.
