Looking for a Forex broker to join in Canada?
In this post, we’ve taken a look at five of the best forex brokers regulated in Canada right now.
We’ve assessed each of these CIRO-regulated brokers based on their trustworthiness, spreads and fees, trading platforms, customer service, and more, to help you find the right broker for your trading style.
If you’re in a rush, open the description below to view the brokers we’ve assessed in this post. Click the links to their websites below to learn more about their platforms and begin trading with them.
Let’s get started.
1. Oanda
Oanda is definitely worth looking at if you’re searching for a Canadian forex broker.
They’re regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, formally known as the IIROC, meaning they’re fully licensed to operate in all 13 provinces and territories.
Oanda is a large, well-established broker that also acts as a market maker. This means they have no commissions on trades, and their spreads tend to be very small, which is good for day traders and scalpers.
They have a huge number of currency pairs to trade on, and there’s no minimum deposit required to get started. Some other brokers make you deposit a minimum amount, normally a hundred US dollars, before you can begin trading.
Speaking of getting started, signing up for Oanda is a quick and easy process, and we’ve found their customer service is normally very helpful. Their live chat is responsive, and their team is quite knowledgeable if you ever run into any issues with your account.
While Oanda supports Metatrader 4 and TradingView, they also have quite a good proprietary platform, as well as intuitive Android and iOS apps. Their software and user interfaces are a lot better than what most other brokers offer. However, Oanda doesn’t support Metatrader 5 at the moment, which might be important to some traders.
2. CMC Markets
CMC Markets is another broker that unfortunately doesn’t support MT5, and they also don’t allow you to trade with TradingView either.
However, if you don’t mind using MT4, or CMC’s proprietary software, there are a lot of things to like about CMC Markets.
CMC is CIRO-regulated, and is one of the biggest forex brokers in the world at the moment. They’re regulated in Australia, the UK, Germany, Singapore, New Zealand, and many other countries as well.
They have no minimum deposit, and no inactivity fees on forex accounts. Their spreads are very competitive, and they offer more than 300 different currency pairs to trade on – more than any other forex broker in Canada at the moment.
Not to mention, they also have a huge range of stocks and CFDs you can trade, in case you prefer to keep all your trading activity in one place for simplicity’s sake.
Overall, as long as you like the software options they have available, CMC Markets is definitely worth checking out. Click the link in the description to go to the CMC or Oanda websites to learn more about these two brokers and sign up for an account.
3. AvaTrade
AvaTrade is the one broker in this post you might not have seen mentioned before.
They’re a bit lesser-known than the likes of CMC or Oanda. However, they have been around for a long time – they were founded in 2006 and are CIRO-regulated in Canada. They also have regulator approval in Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Cyprus, and Japan, among other countries.
The best thing about AvaTrade is how beginner-friendly they are. In comparison to a lot of other Canadian forex brokers, their platform is very intuitive. They also provide a lot of resources for new traders, including videos and written guides to help you learn the ropes more quickly.
These resources are integrated into the AvaTrade platform, helping you learn how to do things like execute orders, set stop losses, and manage your open positions, as well as more advanced trading techniques.
The other reason you might like to choose AvaTrade is it’s very easy to set up an account. Continuing with the theme of being beginner-friendly, it’s a fast process to get started, and you can normally begin trading more quickly than you can with some of the bigger brokers.
Unfortunately, you can’t use TradingView with this broker at the moment. Also, there is a significant downside to AvaTrade for more advanced traders – the number of currency pairs they have available to trade at the moment. Currently, they only have around 60 pairs to trade from, compared to the 80 to 90 most other brokers have. In saying that though, all of the important pairs such as EUR/USD, USD/CAD, and GBP/USD are available to trade.
4. Forex.com
Forex.com is a bit similar to Oanda.
They’re another large, well-established broker, regulated in Canada, with a large number of currency pairs you can trade. Both companies also offer good customer service and should assign you an account manager if you have a large account.
The difference is, forex.com is not a market maker, unlike Oanda. Their spreads can be a bit higher sometimes, but they offer commission accounts, which you might find useful depending on your trading style.
There are some other downsides to forex.com though. They have a $100 minimum deposit and only offer a maximum leverage of 30 to 1, which is a bit lower than some of the other brokers in this post.
5. FXCM
The last broker we’ve looked at on this list is FXCM.
The biggest strength of FXCM is their customer service. They’re sort of similar to Oanda, in that their customer support is a bit more knowledgeable and helpful compared to some other brokers on the market.
Apart from that, FXCM is a well-regulated, large forex broker, licensed by CIRO, as well as the Australian, British, and South African market regulators. They have a large number of funding methods available, except for PayPal unfortunately, but only have a $50 minimum deposit, instead of the $100 most other brokers set.
The downside to FXCM is they only have 42 different currency pairs available to trade at the moment. Also, they don’t support cTrader or MetaTrader 5, although you can use MT4 or TradingView to make trades with this broker.
Conclusion
So, which Canadian-regulated forex broker is the best choice for you? It depends a bit on what you’re looking for and the type of trading you do.
For some people, Oanda might be a really good all-around choice. They offer low spreads, good customer service, and fast execution speeds. Plus, it’s really easy to get started with them.
AvaTrade can be a good choice for beginners, thanks to the range of different tools and resources they provide for new traders. And CMC Markets is also worth looking at, thanks to the number of currency pairs they have available, especially if you want to consolidate all of your trading activity into a single brokerage.
Remember, click the links in the description to each of these five brokers to open an account and see what they’re like to use. If you have any questions about choosing a forex broker as a Canadian resident, leave us a comment below, and we’ll respond as soon as possible.
Hi, I’m Mark! I’ve been trading forex for nearly 10 years now, and I started this site to help others navigate the sometimes confusing world of brokers, spreads, and trading platforms. I’ve spent countless hours testing different brokers, comparing fees, and figuring out which companies in this industry actually deliver on their promises.
When I’m not trading, I enjoy hiking, trying out new coffee spots, and tinkering with automated trading strategies (some successful, some… not so much). My goal is to make forex trading less overwhelming and help you find the right broker or platform to fit your trading style.