Company name: Pepperstone / Pepperstone Group / Pepperstone Markets Limited
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: Australia
Regulatators: AU ASIC / CY CYSEC / UK FCA / BS SCB / KE CMA
Minimum deposit: $200
Maximum leverage: 200:1
FEATURES:
- Competitive pricing with the Razor account
- Access to multiple social trading platforms
- Regulated in Australia, Europe and Dubai
- Fast deposit and withdrawal processing times
Note: BEST FOREX BROKERS 2023 – RATING SCORE OF 4.4 OUT OF 5.0
Pepperstone offers an exceptional trade experience for all types of traders, whether it is low spreads for the cost-conscious trader or interface functionality for the more technologically advanced trader!
Pepperstone reviews by verified customers, cashback rebates, expert ratings, spreads & fees, leverage, demo accounts, downloads, trading platforms and more.
Pepperstone Review | Pepperstone Rebates – Forex Broker Rating
Table of Contents
We start our Pepperstone review by outlining the best features of this Australian CFD broker.
Pepperstone Overall Rating
Currently the broker receives a score of 4.4 out of 5.0.
Pepperstone is a great choice for traders looking for a supervised broker. With strong regulations in place, to safeguard retail investors, by the ASIC, FCA and Dubai DFSA.
Also, a positive note for the tight spreads of the Razor account, and the great choice of trading platforms, including social trading and its excellent forex education materials.
On the downside, a slightly higher trading commission for the MT4 Razor account, when compared with other top CFD brokers, could be improved.
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Pepperstone Regulation / Money Protection
Currently the broker receives a score of 5.0 out of 5.0.
Opening a live trading account with Pepperstone is possible with any of its four highly regulated entities, plus with the off-shore entity serving the international clientele, and for traders looking for higher leverage ratios.
1) International regulation: Pepperstone Markets Limited will be the counterparty for international clients, subject to the client’s jurisdiction. This entity has a registered office at Sea Sky Lane, B201, Sandyport, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas. Pepperstone Markets Limited is registered in the Bahamas, with company number 177174 B and is regulated by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas with licence number SIA-F217.
2) Australian regulation: Pepperstone Group Limited, registered with ACN 147 055 703, is located at Level 16, Tower One, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC 3008, Australia. This entity is licensed by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) with licence number ASFL 414530. The Pepperstone Group Limited entity is registered to offer financial products and trading services in Australia, limited to the financial services covered by its AFSL licence.
Pepperstone’s Regulation In Europe
3) European regulation: Pepperstone Limited is a financial services company registered in England and Wales under number 08965105, with a registered office at 70 Gracechurch Street, London EC3V 0HR, United Kingdom. Pepperstone Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with licence number 684312. The UK FCA licence is cross-border, meaning it also allows Pepperstone Limited to offer its products and services to customers in other European countries, according to ESMA regulations.
The Pepperstone EU Limited entity is registered as a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) with number 398429 and authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with licence number 388/20. Pepperstone EU Limited registered office is at 142 Franklin Roosevelt Avenue, Limassol, Cyprus. The CySEC licence allows Pepperstone EU Limited to carry out brokerage activities in Europe, as an intermediary in the financial markets, respecting the MiFID obligations.
4) UAE regulation: Pepperstone Financial Services (DIFC) Limited has a registered office at the Al Fattan Currency House, Tower 2, Level 15, Office 1502 A, P. O. Box 482087, DIFC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This entity is regulated by the DFSA with licence number F004356. Pepperstone Financial Services (DIFC) Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pepperstone Group Limited. The product issuer is the Pepperstone Group Limited entity, registered and licensed by Australia’s ASIC.
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Client Money Protection
Pepperstone complies with the highest safety standards regarding clients’ funds. For this reason, Pepperstone customers’ funds are kept in top-tier international banks, such as the Barclays Bank and the National Australian Bank (NAB), fully segregated from the company’s funds.
Pepperstone also complies with strict client money handling rules and employs policies and procedures regarding the maintenance and operation of these accounts. Pepperstone’s customer’s money is held in segregated accounts, separated from the company own funds, and not used for any operational expenses or other purposes.
Deposit Compensation
The UK supervised entity, Pepperstone Limited, is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), an independent compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised UK financial services firms. If Pepperstone Limited is unable to pay claims against it, or in a case where the firm has stopped trading or has declared to be in default, retail clients might be entitled to compensation, up to the value of £85,000 per claim.
Pepperstone EU Limited, the Cyprus regulated entity, is a member of the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF), an investor compensation fund for clients of CIF companies, regulated by the directive DI87-07 of the CySEC. If Pepperstone EU Limited is unable to meet its obligations, retail clients might be entitled to compensation, up to the value of €20,000 per claim, irrespective of the number of accounts held, currency and place of the offering of the investment service.
Please beware that these financial compensation schemes apply only to traders classified as “Retail”. Traders classified as “Professional” do not enjoy the same benefits. Both schemes are designed to protect the funds – up to £85,000 in the UK and up to €20,000 in Cyprus – of all retail traders with a registered trading account with Pepperstone Limited and/or Pepperstone EU Limited, independently of their geographical location.
Negative Balance Protection
All of the group entities offer a default Negative Balance Protection. Pepperstone deploys an automated stop-out policy designed to minimise losses. This mechanism takes action before the market moves further against open positions, thus, voiding the risk of losing more than the current account balance. The level at which the automated stop-out occurs depends on the platform used and the policy regarding covering negative balances varies depending on the circumstances
For MT4/5 accounts, the automated stop-out system will begin to close out trades when the account equity falls below 20% of the margin requirements, or, in other words, when the margin level falls below 20%. For the cTrader accounts, the same automated stop-out system acts when the account equity falls below 50% of the margin requirements, or, when the margin level falls below 50%.
Pepperstone Cashback Rebates
Cash back rebates are paid per round turn lot unless otherwise specified. 1 Lot = 100,000 base currency units traded.
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Notes
12.857% of commissions paid are based on account currency: 0.97USD, 0.90AUD, 0.93CHF, 0.67EUR, 0.59GBP, 7.25HKD, 78.10JPY, 1.22NZD, 0.98SGD.
Rebate is converted to USD upon trade close.
Rebates are not paid for:
- Accounts registered with: CySEC, German BaFin entities
- Residents of Japan, Mainland China, France, Belgium
- Islamic, Spread Betting or Active Trader accounts
- EU and UK retail accounts
What Are Pepperstone Rebates?
Pepperstone rebates are a portion of the transaction cost that is paid back to the client on each trade, resulting in a lower spread and improved win ratio. For example, if your rebate is 1 pip and the spread is 3 pips, then your net spread is only 2 pips.
Many traders initially believe there must be higher costs elsewhere to compensate, however they soon find there is no catch and Forex rebates truly reduce the costs of the transaction and improve their bottom line.
How Do Pepperstone Rebates Work?
When you link a new or existing forex trading account to Cashback Forex (CBFX) the broker pays them part of their spread or commission profit for every trade you make as compensation for referring a customer. CBFX then share the majority of the revenue with you, paying you a cash rebate for each trade you make as thank you for signing up.
Your spreads will never increase as a result of using this service! The only difference is: as a CBFX client you earn extra cash per trade, making trading through us more profitable than opening direct with the broker. Founded in 2007, CBFX are the original and leading provider of forex rebates. CBFX pay rebates to over 100,000 accounts and traders love a helpful 24 hour live chat, telephone and email support.
Are Pepperstone Rebates A Scam; Do My Spreads Increase?
Pepperstone rebates paid by legitimate rebate providers are not a scam, however scams do exist. The most common scam is a rebate provider that marks up the spread or commission in order to pay a higher rebate than competitors. Many brokers do allow a referring party, or rebate provider, to markup costs to traders they refer. Obviously this defeats the purpose of the service provided by the rebate provider and thus jeopardizes the viability of the rebate provider’s reputation and business, so a reliable provider wouldn’t consider this. Besides this, certain rebate providers may not pay on time, or not at all. This is why it’s important to choose a reliable provider.
When working with a trustworthy rebate provider, there is no ‘catch’. It is more beneficial to a trader’s financial position to work with a rebate provider than solely with the forex broker.
Are There Any Other Benefits To Signing Up For Pepperstone Rebates?
It depends on the rebate provider. Due to CBFX’s unique relationship with many brokers, they have often mediated between brokers and clients in order to help successfully resolve client issues, including clients who are having withdrawal issues. Brokers are often very fast to respond, since they typically have many clients. Their knowledgeable support team is available 24 hours per day in 8 native languages & 23 total languages for any questions. They also offer trading tools, calculators, reviews and a robust forex education section.
How Are Forex Rebates Paid?
Because CBFX deals with so many traders in so many different countries and serve 23 languages we have to cover a wide array of options. Here’s what they offer:
Forex rebate options vary per broker:
Monthly cash back | Payments are credited and sent automatically by the 12 of the month following the month rebates are earned in. |
Spread or commission reduction | The trader actually receives reduced commissions and/or spreads. This is an exciting option offered by some of our top brokers. |
Paid direct to brokerage account | Cashback is credited directly to the trader’s brokerage account, typically between 1-7 days after the trade is closed. This is another exciting options offered by some of our top brokers. |
In the case of the ‘Monthly cash back’ rebate option, monthly payments can be paid via bank wire, Paypal, Skrill, Sticpay, China Unionpay, and Neteller. Some payment methods such as bank wire carries fees and often traders set a custom minimum payment amount in order to accumulate rebates and withdraw their rebates less often than monthly.
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Pepperstone Profile
Established and incorporated in 2010, and with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, the Pepperstone Group is an execution-only forex broker that provides trading solutions sophisticated enough for veteran traders, yet, simple enough for the forex novice.
With representative offices in China, Thailand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States, Pepperstone caters to the trading needs of a global clientele, also with the multitude of account currencies available – from AUD to SGD.
The company was originally founded by a veteran management team with years of experience in the forex and technology industries. Pepperstone holds an AFSL – Australian Financial Services License – and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. Pepperstone is also regulated and licensed in the UK by the FCA, in Cyprus by the CySEC and in Dubai by the DFSA.
With a global presence, this Australian-based broker offers its customers a good choice of trading platforms, competitive trading costs with its Razor account, low latency connectivity and superior liquidity. Pepperstone customer support is available in 11 languages, operational 24 hours/ 5 days a week, via direct phone number (subject to jurisdiction), live chat and email.
Trading with Pepperstone can be done with the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms, both available as desktop terminals, and mobile versions for Android and iOS, and the more advanced cTrader platform, also available for Windows, Android and iOS.
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Pepperstone Asset Classes
As a top online CFD broker, Pepperstone doesn’t disappoint with its range of more than 1,000 tradable financial instruments. They are divided into 5 asset classes: forex, indices, stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies.
FX market: 70+ currency pairs, including all major pairs, and some minor and exotic crosses.
Indices: 23 world indices CFD, including the UK 100, the NIKKEI 225 and the AUS 200. Also, within the same asset class, 10 futures contracts CFD are available for trading.
Stocks: 900+ stocks CFD from several markets, including 600+ shares from NASDAQ and the NSYE of top American companies and banks, such as Amazon, Bank of America, Intel or Facebook. Also available for trading, a vast list of top equities from the UK’s LSE, Germany’s XETRA and Australia’s ASX.
Commodities: 32 commodities CFDs available for trading, with 12 metals, including Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium, 4 energies including the UK Oil, the US Oil and Nat Gas and 16 soft commodities (Coffee, Cotton, Sugar, Cocoa and Orange Juice).
Cryptocurrencies: 11 crypto CFDs crosses available for trading, including Bitcoin, Doge, Polkadot, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Also available for trading some selected crypto-indexes, Uniswap, Crypto 10, Crypto 20 and Crypto 30.
Pepperstone Account Types
To simplify the choice of trading accounts, Pepperstone offers only two types; Standard and Razor.
The Pepperstone Standard accounts are suited for traders that wish to trade only with the bid and ask prices, without any added trading commissions.
The Pepperstone Razor accounts (also available with the cTrader platform) are recommended for investors looking for more competitive pricing, especially for forex CFD pairs with a tighter spread. The EUR/USD average spread with Pepperstone is 0.1 pip and the GBP/USD average spread is 0.28 pip, for example.
Pepperstone’s Most Popular Razor Account
Of course, to benefit from tighter spreads, trading on a Razor account will have added commissions. Please note that Pepperstone’s commissions are only charged on Razor accounts when trading forex and shares CFDs, and, on the MT5 and MT4, micro lots are rounded up or down.
The standard lot commission for 1 lot (100,000 units) for a Razor account using MT5 is 7.00 USD (3.50 USD per side, per lot). For a Razor account using MT4, the commission for 1 lot is 7.53 USD (3.76 USD per side, per lot). Commissions on cTrader Accounts are based on 0.0035% of the base currency that’s being traded. For example, if you’re trading 100,000 currency units (1 lot) of EUR/USD the commission charge will be €7.00 (€3.50 when opening the contract and €3.50 when closing the position).
Pepperstone also offers swap-free accounts for traders of Islamic belief, and PAMM and MAM services through the Pepperstone Partners program. This alternative service for money managers is only available to qualify, and experienced, fund managers with relevant licences or industry experience.
Regarding leverage, Pepperstone maximum ratio is 30:1 for retail clients in Europe, and clients of the ASIC regulated entity, and up to 200:1 for accounts opened with the Pepperstone Markets Limited entity, regulated by the Bahamas SCB.
Currently, Pepperstone base currencies available are AUD, USD, JPY, GBP, EUR, CAD, CHF, NZD, SGD and HKD.
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Pepperstone Demo Account
With a Pepperstone demo account traders can compare how the broker fits against its peers, for its product offering and trading conditions. A demo account is also useful for beginners, to learn and practise their trading skills, without taking any risks with real money.
To open a demo account – takes around 1 minute to complete – traders need to fill in a simple registration form, providing the broker with some basic information and after confirming the demo account, download the selected trading platform. To open a demo, traders do not need to upload any verification document(s) to Pepperstone, unless they are ready to open a live account.
Pepperstone MT4/5 demo accounts expire automatically after 30 days unless traders have a live funded account and request the broker to set it to non-expiry. cTrader demo accounts will not expire if they are logged into at least once every 30 days. The broker offers investors the chance to try out both of its account types, Standard and Razor, and all of its trading platforms (MT4, MT5 and cTrader).
Pepperstone demo account gives traders the chance to test the broker’s services and product offering on several financial instruments – forex, indices, stocks, commodities, and its range of cryptocurrencies CFDs, including Bitcoin – without risking any real money.
A Pepperstone demo account is 100% risk-free, the funds (up to $50,000) on the demo account are virtual – including the winnings and losses – but it will allow traders access to a safe environment where they can practice, and experiment with different trading strategies.
Register for free and test your trading strategies, open a demo trading account with no risk and no obligation now.
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Pepperstone Pricing
Spreads And Trading Commissions
Pepperstone trading costs are some of the best when compared with other players in this industry. The starting spread for the most popular cross, the EUR/USD pair, on the Standard account is 0.6 pip, commission-free.
Of course, the highlight goes to the Pepperstone MT5 Razor account, with much better pricing and trading conditions. Taking the EUR/USD cross again as our example, Pepperstone proposes a starting low spread of 0.0 pip, with a trading commission for 1 standard lot – 100,000 currency units – of 7 USD (3.5 USD per side/per lot). We consider the Razor account commission to be average when compared with other top brokers.
The cTrader Razor account presents similar pricing, also a starting spread of 0.0 pip for the EUR/USD cross, and a similar trading commission of 7 USD for 1 standard lot.
If you are a trader looking for an alternative broker for social trading or copy-trading, Pepperstone can also represent an interesting option. The broker has partnered with a range of social trading platforms to help investors access strategies from the world’s best traders.
We recommend DupliTrade, a popular trading strategy marketplace, with competitive commissions. The service allows investors to automate their trading. DupliTrade uses signals from proprietary traders, allowing investors to build a robust portfolio and profit from the trades of pros.
Rollover Rates
Pepperstone does not publish, nor lets any third-party software publish them on their behalf. As the broker states on their website “You can find our latest swap rates on our trading platforms. Swap rates posted on our platforms are indicative rates and are subject to change based upon market volatility.” Thus, the only way to compare Pepperstone’s rollover rates is by opening an account.
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Pepperstone Deposits / Withdrawals
Deposit fees: Pepperstone’s trading accounts can be opened in 9 different currencies and maintained via different funding methods. With the deposits via debit/credit cards and bank wires, Pepperstone also accepts deposits with the most popular e-wallets such as Neteller, UnionPay, Skrill, and PayPal (subject to jurisdiction).
Deposited funds are available almost instantly and Pepperstone does not charge any deposit fees.
Minimum deposit: Opening a trading account with Pepperstone can be done online, taking around 10-15 minutes to complete the required forms. Pepperstone minimum deposit requirement to open a live account is $200 for all accounts – or the equivalent in other currencies.
Withdrawal fees: Same policy applies for withdrawals (processing times are typically 2 working days, but may vary for wire transfers). Pepperstone does not charge any additional fees for withdrawals, however, there is a $20 fee for bank withdrawals for clients outside the EU and Australia.
Inactivity fee: Currently, Pepperstone does not charge any inactivity fees or any other account maintenance fees.
Pepperstone Popularity
The popularity of this excellent Australian broker is undeniable. Trading with Pepperstone can be done with a good range of platforms (MT4, MT5 and cTrader) to suit all kinds of traders, but the key feature for Pepperstone popularity is its competitive trading conditions and spreads, particularly with the MT5 Razor account.
Boating cutting-edge trading technology, Pepperstone offers direct access to multiple liquidity providers in the forex market, without the usual burdens of a deal desk. The broker aims at making forex trading fairer, more professional and convenient for retail traders.
Popular trading account: The highlight goes to the Pepperstone MT5 Razor account. A popular choice with traders looking to save on trading costs. And with lower spreads and a competitive commission of $7.00 per lot traded ($7.53 for the MT4 Razor account).
Trading Education
Pepperstone has a range of educational materials, available through the “Education” tab on its website. This covers the most basic aspects of trading different financial instruments and how to use the trading platforms. Other than that, Pepperstone’s clients can also find an extensive library of webinars. With trading strategies and technical analysis techniques, for example.
Pepperstone Promotions
Free Account Funding
25% Discount on VPS Services
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Pepperstone FAQs
Is Pepperstone regulated in the UK?
Pepperstone, the famous Australian CFDs broker, is present in Europe, as Pepperstone Limited in the UK, with an FCA licence. But also as Pepperstone EU Limited, based in Cyprus and with a licence from the CySEC.
The online brokers’ landscape is very crowded, but a few firms stand out above the rest. This is the case with Pepperstone UK, whose cutting-edge offerings and meticulous service have made them an unprecedented success in just a few years.
Pepperstone Limited holds a financial services licence number 684312, issued by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It can officially open its doors to European traders, who can finally deposit in UK accounts. Recently, due to the Brexit, the broker has also decided to open an office in Cyprus with a CySEC licence.
Investors wishing to open a trading account with Pepperstone UK should visit the broker’s UK website. This could be a problem sometimes, seeing that the broker has multiple websites. Depending on your IP address, you might be redirected to other international pages. Here’s the direct link to Pepperstone UK.
More facts about Pepperstone UK
As a strongly regulated UK CFD broker, registered users opening an account through the UK branch will be protected by the European investment regulations, adopted by all regulators in Europe. Some of the most important European legislative measures to protect retail investors include:
The Investor Compensation Scheme. This is real insurance for retail investors and their account balances. This compensation scheme protects retail deposits if a UK broker – and therefore Pepperstone UK – fails to pay claims against it, or in a case where the firm has stopped trading or has declared to be in default. Retail investors are covered up to £85,000 – approximately €94,000 – per claim, per customer. This is a very high figure if we consider that a similar compensation scheme offered by the Cyprus CySEC covers only up to €20,000 per claim, per customer.
Segregation of funds. According to this principle, clients’ funds must be kept separate from those of the broker. In the unlikely event of the broker’s bankruptcy, no creditor of the broker would be able to seek recourse against the funds deposited by the clients. Pepperstone UK client funds are segregated in separate accounts with the Barclays Bank in the UK.
Negative balance protection. Thanks to this legislative requirement, no client can generate a loss on his account greater than his cash balance, or greater than what he has deposited in the account. Even in the case of unfavourable events for the trader, Pepperstone UK is obliged to put in place several measures to avoid generating losses above the funds in the account.
Pepperstone UK has the best trading environment
Pepperstone UK offers an effective STP/ECN trading environment. Connecting traders to the ECN raw interbank market network. Offering an institutional-grade trading experience, combined with competitive spreads. Some of the key features offered by Pepperstone UK include:
- Spread betting
- Scalping allowed
- Hedging allowed
- AlgoTrading allowed
- Autochartist + Smart Trader Tools
The possibility of Spread Betting was recently introduced by Pepperstone UK. It is an exclusive offer for residents of the UK, Ireland and other areas where this is allowed.
Pepperstone UK overall offer is quite solid. Combining low spreads with robust trading platforms – MT4, MT5 and cTrader. And an initial minimum deposit of just 200 GBP to open a live account. Pepperstone UK is a serious candidate for traders looking for a UK broker.
What is Pepperstone minimum deposit?
Pepperstone minimum deposit is 200 of the accepted base currency units. The minimum deposit is 200 EUR, 200 GBP and 200 AUD. The broker recommends a minimum deposit of 500 base currency units to allow for more trading margin.
Pepperstone also accepts deposits in USD, JPY, CAD, CHF, NZD, SGD and HKD, where conversion rates apply. Let’s see Pepperstone’s accepted payment methods. With Pepperstone, you can fund your trading account with several payment methods, depending on your jurisdiction. Please refer to the table below to see which funding methods are accepted by Pepperstone’s entities:
Deposits by card are almost immediately, but bank transfers can take between 2 to 5 working days.
For traders using PayPal to fund the account, the first deposit will require verification. This will take 1-2 business days. Once verified, all future deposits from the same account will be applied instantly.
What is Pepperstone leverage?
Pepperstone leverage, for forex trading, for retail clients is up to 30:1 and for professional clients is up to 500:1. But these ratios depend also on three variables. The trader’s classification, the asset traded and with which regulated entity you are trading.
Firstly, traders applying for a live Pepperstone account will be classified, either as “Retail” or “Professional”. In Europe, the ESMA, and in Australia the ASIC, product interventions regarding new leverage limits for retail traders, established a leverage cap of 30:1 for forex trading, for retail traders. And recently, the Bahamas SCB did also a product intervention establishing the maximum leverage to 200:1 (was 500:1 previously).
Pepperstone leverage also depends on the traded asset, with limits varying accordingly. The maximum leverage for retail investors trading the EUR/USD with Pepperstone’s European entities is 30:1. While the maximum leverage to trade the BTC/USD is 2:1.
Please refer to the table below to see Pepperstone’s maximum leverage ratios available for retail and professional traders:
Pepperstone leverage limits are applied for both account types, Standard and Razor. And on all available trading platforms, MT4, MT5 and cTrader.
Why trade with the Pepperstone Razor account?
There are two accounts available with Pepperstone: the Razor account and the Standard account. These are two accounts designed for different types of traders. But although they have significant differences, there are some common points between the two.
First of all, the minimum deposit is the same for both accounts. And that is 200 base currency units in EUR, GBP or AUD. A figure that we can consider slightly below what other brokers ask and perfect even for beginners. Other similarities concern the minimum and maximum tradable lots:
- Minimum: 0.01 standard lots, equivalent to one micro-lot or 1,000 currency units
- Maximum: 100 standard lots
These are the similarities between the two accounts, but what are the differences? There is no shortage of them, and they can change your online trading experience dramatically.
Pepperstone Razor is the account for scalpers!
With tight spreads starting at 0.0 pip. And trading commissions per traded lot (100,000 currency units) of 7 USD for the MT5 Razor. And 7.53 USD for the MT4 Razor.
This account type allows investors to take full advantage of the ECN/STP trading environment offered by the broker. The main difference between the two accounts is the spreads offered, which on average are lower for the Razor account. For example, the EUR/USD pair starts at 0.0 pips with the Razor account and 0.6 pip for the Standard account. But which one is the cheapest to trade with?
According to Pepperstone’s spreads and commissions webpage, the Standard account minimum spread for the EUR/USD is 0.6 pip, with an average spread of 0.69. Pepperstone declares that the Razor account minimum spread for the EUR/USD is 0.0 pip, with an average spread of 0.09.
Now, the EUR/USD pair pip size is 0.0001, and the pip value for 1 lot is 10 USD (you can calculate the pip value of any currency pair with our handy EURUSD pip calculator). So, if Pepperstone is charging 7 USD per 1 traded lot, and if the EUR/USD pip value is 10 USD, we can easily convert the commission value to pips, and the result is 0.7 pip.
Pepperstone Razor is the account for algorithmic traders!
So, the Standard account has an average spread/cost of 0.69 pip for the EUR/USD, with no commissions, and the Razor account has an average spread/cost of 0.79 pip for the EUR/USD, which is the sum of the average spread of 0.09 pip, plus 0.7 pip in commissions, thus, the Standard account is cheaper in terms of trading costs, when compared to the Razor account.
Still, our recommendation is to open and trade with a Pepperstone Razor account, even if it costs slightly more. It’s always preferable to trade with lower spreads and have your limit and stop orders filled, than trading with higher spreads and risking not closing an order. In this highly volatile market, such as currencies trading, even 0.1 pip can make a difference when a winning trade with a pending take-profit order is not filled and turns into a loss.
Can I trade with the Pepperstone cTrader platform?
Yes, the Pepperstone cTrader platform is available as a standalone browser version. And downloadable for Windows PC, Android and iOS smartphones. Pepperstone offers the cTrader platform also with its 30-day demo account.
The platform is an intuitive and easy-to-use trading terminal with advanced order entry capabilities. It has fast entry and execution and customised scheduling. There are several trading and analysis materials to help investors make better trading decisions.
The main difference between the cTrader platform and the MetaQuotes platforms (MT4 and MT5), is the limited tradable assets. Pepperstone cTrader has only 150 tradable assets.
Pepperstone cTrader platform has an institutional trading environment. Amongst the key features of cTrader, highlight for its advanced trading tools, such as depth of market, ability to add multiple take-profit orders, and detailed order tickets, including base currency dollar value or pip distance.
Also important, the platform allows for detachable charts for multiple monitors, adjustable session times and a detailed trade analysis feature to understand trader’s strengths and weaknesses. The Pepperstone cTrader is available in multiple languages; Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.
To sum up, the Pepperstone cTrader platform is the ideal choice for those getting into trading. But also for more experienced traders looking for an institutional level trading platform. Even at the cost of sacrificing the range of tradable assets.
Pepperstone Real Customer Rating
Pepperstone verified customers – with a live trading account – recommend the broker, mainly, for its tight trading spreads on FX pairs. Deposits and withdrawals are very efficient. Also on a positive note, traders praise the broker for its stable servers and the strong regulations in place.
Negatively, some Pepperstone users complain about the broker’s customer support service. Especially about some inefficiency when dealing with technical questions. And the frequent occurrence of very high negative and positive slippage.
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Pepperstone Review – Final Considerations
We conclude our Pepperstone review with the final considerations regarding this Australian-based CFD broker. Pepperstone stands out for its competitive trading costs. Especially in the forex market, with the EUR/USD pair, for example, with an average of 0.1 pip. The fast ECN trading environment, offered by Pepperstone to investors. The direct access to tier-1 liquidity providers, gives an overall better trading experience. Pepperstone traders can hedge, scalp, swing or position trade, with no restrictions. There are 3 reliable trading platforms available; MT4, MT5 and cTrader.
The other great feature of the Pepperstone broker is the retail clients’ funds safety. It is a great choice for algorithmic trading with the Best Forex EA’s. As a highly-regulated CFD broker, in compliance with the ESMA and the ASIC financial authorities’ rules, traders can be sure that they are contracting with a reputable CFD broker.
Pepperstone is also a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). The AFCA is an independent and impartial Australian ombudsman that can assist consumers to resolve a complaint about an Australian financial firm.
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Overall, Pepperstone competitive pricing of its Razor account, the great ECN environment trading conditions, together with a low initial deposit of 200 currency units, position this CFD broker on the top 3 forex brokers for popularity with traders opening a trading account in 2023.