Best Offering of Currency Pairs, CFDs

1. IG - 4 Stars
2. Saxo Bank - 4 Stars
3. Interactive Brokers - 4 Stars
4. GAIN Capital (FOREX.com) - 4 Stars
5. CMC Markets - 4 Stars
6. Swissquote Bank - 3.5 Stars
7. eToro - 3.5 Stars

Foreign exchange markets are open 24 hours a day, five days a week, which means investors can constantly scan international markets for opportunities to invest. Having access to multiple asset classes from within a single platform is important to many investors, as financial markets, including forex and even cryptocurrencies, are highly interconnected. The ability to react quickly to geopolitical and economic news events in real time is key.

In the early 2000s, a fine line used to exist: brokers were most often concentrated on offering just one asset, for example forex, to their customers. However, today trading platforms are no longer just for trading forex, stocks, or futures; instead, multi-asset offerings are now industry standards among all the largest online brokers. That said, the range of products and markets you can trade still varies considerably across firms.

IG placed first with 15,000 tradeable instruments available including 95 forex pairs and boasts the most regulatory licenses among all brokers, including from top-tier jurisdictions such as the US, UK, and Switzerland, among others. IG placed first with 15,000 tradeable instruments available including 95 forex pairs and boasts the most regulatory licenses, including from top-tier jurisdictions such as the US, UK, and Switzerland, among others. IG also significantly expanded its range of cryptocurrency CFDs on a year-over-year basis and provides access to global stock exchanges through its share-dealing account offering (for more information about IG’s share-dealing offering, read our IG Group UK share dealing review on our sister site, StockBrokers.com).

Saxo Bank held second with 9,000 CFDs available and 139 currency pairs, including off-exchange forex options trading supported on key major pairs and crosses. Saxo Bank’s offering of wealth advisory solutions to investors further complements its position, including its offering of Bitcoin-related exchange-traded funds.

Interactive Brokers took third place with a wide range of top-tier regulatory licenses. Interactive Brokers provides traders access to 6,200 CFDs (up from 4,217), 85 forex pairs, global exchange-traded products, US-traded Bitcoin futures, and much more.

FOREX.com took fourth place with a wide array of top-tier regulatory licenses, as well as 84 forex pairs.

CMC Markets placed fifth with 9,959 instruments, including 330 forex pairs (including two-way quotes, such as EUR/USD and USD/EUR), which is the most number of forex pairs of all the broker’s we’ve tested in 2018. CMC Markets also has regulatory licenses in major jurisdictions such as Australia, Singapore, and Canada.

Swissquote bank followed with top-tier licenses, and although the broker only lists 38 CFDs alongside 78 forex pairs, in a separate trading platform, which requires a different account, it offers nearly two million tradeable products. The broker also was the first bank to offer bitcoin as an underlying (non-CFD), in addition to creating an exchange-traded note tied to Bitcoin’s price on the SIX Swiss stock exchange.

Lastly, eToro finished seventh for its wide range of products and respectable list of licenses.