7 Best High-Frequency Trading Forex Brokers for 2024

List of Top HFT Forex Brokers and Platforms

Best brokers for US traders

Best brokers for international traders

How Did FX Empire Select the Best High-Frequency Trading Forex Brokers?

• Regulation. We only considered tightly regulated brokers that adhere to the industry’s main safety standards.
• Speed of execution. We looked for brokers that can guarantee average execution speeds under 50 milliseconds.
• Suitable platforms. Our picks for each category offer versatile platforms that accommodate rapid order execution and high-frequency trading.
• Available trading strategies. We only considered brokers that allow high-frequency trading strategies, such as scalping, and permit automated trading.
• Suitable accounts. We only selected brokers with account types that accommodate HFT by assessing their execution models.
• Low costs. We evaluated the spreads, swaps, and commissions of each broker and selected those with competitive pricing.
• Range of markets. We only considered brokers that offer a range of instruments from major asset classes, such as FX pairs, commodities, CFD shares, and indices.

Our team of experts has identified brokers’ strengths and weaknesses using FX Empire’s comprehensive methodology. Here’s how we test.

Now let’s dive into the selected brokers.

How to Choose a Forex Broker For High-Frequency Trading?

How to find a safe broker?

To make sure you are dealing with a trustworthy partner, you need to make sure that the broker entity you choose is tightly regulated and complies with all industry safety requirements.

I have broken down the most important safety mechanisms to look for in a broker below:

• Segregation of client funds. Brokers must keep their clients’ funds in separate bank accounts from the ones used for their corporate capital. This is crucial for mitigating the risk of accounting errors.
• Negative balance protection. Negative balance protection means that a trader’s losses cannot exceed their account balance. This protection is indispensable when trading high-risk instruments, such as Contracts for Difference (CFDs).
• Limited market exposure. Beginners are especially susceptible to the risk of adverse price fluctuations, which is why the maximum leverage for retail traders is recommended to be at 1:30. Anything beyond that can be too risky for inexperienced traders.
• Compensation scheme. Depending on the jurisdiction where a broker is situated, a compensation scheme may also protect its clients against the company’s credit risk and liabilities. For instance, brokers regulated by the CySEC participate in the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF). In the unlikely event of the company becoming insolvent, traders can be compensated by up to 20,000 EUR. FSCS under FCA UK protects traders by up to 85,000 GBP.

Generally, offshore regulators offer higher leverage but weaker overall protections. In contrast, top-tier regulators seek to limit the maximum market exposure afforded to traders via leverage by capping it.

Read more about Best regulated forex brokers.

How to verify if a broker is regulated?

• Check the Broker’s Website: Legitimate, regulated brokers typically display their license number and the name of their regulator on their website, often in the footer or “About Us” section.
• Visit the Regulator’s Website: Every country’s financial regulator lists all the brokers they regulate on its website. Search for the broker’s name to see if they’re listed.
• Contact the Regulator: If you can’t find the information you’re looking for, you can directly contact the regulator with the broker’s name and any other identifying information you have.
• Check for Memberships: Regulated brokers often belong to compensation schemes or organizations that protect clients’ funds. Check if the broker mentions such memberships on their website.

How to check if a broker’s fees are competitive?

A broker may have several account types, each with different pricing mechanisms. The question is, how to know which one is best fitted for your particular style of trading? I will try to answer this question by providing an example with two distinct accounts, one STP and the other ECN:

The biggest difference between STP and ECN accounts, apart from the execution model, is the pricing mechanism. Usually, STP accounts afford commission-free trading and floating spreads, whereas ECN accounts have fixed commissions and raw spreads (typically starting from 0.1 pips). At first glance, the former sounds more favorable because you only have to pay one cost – the spread – rather than two.

Discover Best STP forex accounts and Best ECN forex accounts.

Many brokers recognize the psychological significance of this sort of thinking and seek to exploit it by raising the spreads on their STP accounts to the point where they are no longer the more competitive option. I will now demonstrate how to do a quick test for yourself to evaluate the competitiveness of a broker’s ECN and STP accounts.

Pick an instrument, say, the EURUSD. Suppose also that the spread on the pair is 0.9 pips on a broker’s STP account and 0.1 pips on its ECN account. There is also a $6 commission for trading 1 lot (100,000 units) contract. If the EURUSD pip value is $10, you can do a simple calculation to determine the value of a hypothetical position on the EURUSD executed on both account types. The formula is the value of a trade = spread x pip value + commission. When we pop in the above values, this is what we discover about our hypothetical broker:

This is just a hypothetical example, but hopefully, it illustrates how more can be less in trading. So it’s worthwhile evaluating the costs of a broker you consider opening an account with for yourself before doing so. And if you are still uncertain, you can always check out our database of reviews to sort out the most competitive brokers.

Check out our list of Best lowest spread forex brokers.

Why does liquidity matter?

The deeper the liquidity pool that a broker has access to, the better the order execution conditions it can serve its clients. That is why high-frequency traders should always check the speed and quality of order execution. The easiest way to do that is to see whether the broker has a ‘best execution policy.’ It means that the company is committed to providing the best price quotes, given the underlying market conditions, when an order is placed.

Precision and speed of order execution are also likely to be enhanced when a broker provides Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. As a rule of thumb, look for brokers that can accommodate ultra-fast order execution speeds of no more than 50 milliseconds.

Check out our guide on Best forex brokers with VPS hosting.

You can confirm a broker’s performance by going to the Legal Documents section of its website and opening its latest execution statement/review. Keep in mind that not all brokers are mandated by their regulators to post such reviews yearly. However, the ones that do are more likely to afford you precise order execution and diminished risk of negative slippage.

How to choose a trading platform for HFT?

A trading platform is your window into the market. It allows you to observe price action behavior and study potential opportunities for placing orders. Technical traders use a platform’s array of indicators, drawing tools, and other features to examine various price patterns, changes in volatility, liquidity, and so on in order to gauge the most favorable times to enter or exit the market.

The best platforms are also the most versatile ones. They include a wide spectrum of technical indicators, such as Fibonacci retracement levels, oscillators, trend-based and range-based indicators, and others, as well as drawing tools, such as trend lines, channels, wedges, etc. They are also the ones that allow you to easily scale price action up and down.

Read more about best MT4 brokers and best MT5 brokers.

Here are some of the features to look for when applying HFT:

• One-click trading minimizes the time taken to execute trades, allowing traders to respond almost instantaneously to fast-moving market conditions. It eliminates the multiple steps usually involved in placing an order. This reduction in friction and delay can be vital for profitability, as even minor delays can lead to missed opportunities or unfavorable prices in HFT.
• Expert advisors (EAs) automate complex trading strategies, executing orders at incredible speeds based on predefined criteria and algorithms. In the fast-paced environment of HFT, where milliseconds can make the difference between profit and loss, EAs ensure that opportunities are seized instantaneously without human delay.
• Low timeframes align with the very short-term nature of HFT strategies, allowing traders to analyze and capitalize on minute price movements. By utilizing low timeframes, often ranging from milliseconds to minutes, HFT traders can identify small, fleeting opportunities for profit that would be invisible or irrelevant on longer timeframes.
• Block orders allow large transactions to be executed without causing substantial price shifts in the market. By breaking down large orders into smaller parts and executing them rapidly through HFT algorithms, traders can minimize the market impact and avoid substantial price slippage.

Check out our dedicated guide on Best forex trading platforms.

What to Avoid When Choosing a High-Frequency Trading Broker?

Here is a quick rundown of what high-frequency traders must avoid:

• Unregulated brokers. Trading with an unregulated broker exposes you to a higher risk of fraud or unethical business practices, as they are not bound by any regulatory standards or rules. Additionally, in case of any disputes or if the broker goes bankrupt, there might be no legal recourse or compensation schemes available to recover your funds.
• Lack of client protection. Avoid brokers that cannot ensure more than two of the following: segregated funds, negative balance protection, compensation scheme, and maximum leverage for retail traders no bigger than 1:100
• Low execution quality. Try to avoid brokers that cannot ensure more than two of the following: best execution policy, regular quality execution statements, and average execution speed under 50 milliseconds.
• High spreads and commissions. Sidestep brokers with floating spreads from 1.8 pips or above on STP accounts and with round-turn commissions above $7 on ECN accounts.

What Are the Most Popular Strategies for High-Frequency Trading?

Scalping

This strategy involves opening large trades to generate substantial returns from minor price shifts. Scalpers seek to profit from small price changes, executing multiple high-volume orders within a brief period, lasting seconds to minutes. They focus on technical analysis, trading on patterns and setups like breakouts, wedges, and triangles.

To scalp successfully, among other things, you need to:

• Choose a sophisticated platform that supports low timeframes (ticks and seconds). Basic retail platforms like MetaTrader 4 do not afford such an in-depth insight into price action behavior and are thereby not very useful for carrying out complex technical analysis. Features like one-click trading are also useful.
• Choose a broker with access to deep liquidity that can guarantee fast order execution. You should look for an average execution speed of under 50 milliseconds. This is essential for negating the risk of negative slippage and ensuring precise order execution.
• Choose a competitive offering. Generally, ECN accounts are best suited for scalping because of their flexible pricing mechanism. They usually comprise raw spreads and a round-turn commission per traded lot (100,000 units). To evaluate the competitiveness of an ECN account’s fees, it’s a good idea to calculate the value of trade of a given instrument, such as the EURUSD. You can do that by using this formula: (spread x pip value + commission). For a full-sized EURUSD position, a value of trade above $15 is considered too costly for scalping.

Read more about Best forex brokers for scalping.

Algorithmic Trading

Since HFT requires quick decision-making in volatile environments, human errors will always pose great risks to the successful execution of trades. Whether it be ‘fat fingers’ trading much higher volumes than initially desired or entering the market prematurely due to anxiety. To mitigate these risks, many HF traders seek to automate their strategies. That way, they can enter and exit the market with huge precision each time a set of predetermined parameters is met.

Once you have backtested and developed a successful strategy for algo trading, you can improve its overall performance with trading APIs and Virtual Private Servers (VPS). Both are commonly used to ensure low-latency trading and decrease the risk of negative slippage.

Check out our picks of Best forex brokers with trading API.

What Are the Risks of High-Frequency Trading?

High-frequency trading is a complex and multifaceted field, laden with potential obstacles that can be challenging to pinpoint. Since various factors can lead to unexpected risks, often all at once, it’s vital to have a clear understanding of what might go wrong. That is why I have outlined the three major types of risk traders may face in the world of HFT:

• Monetary. By its very nature, HFT could generate huge profits and just as easily incur equivalent losses, all within just a few seconds of opening a trade. That is why HFT is not suitable for traders with conservative account sizes and those who cannot afford to sustain any losses.
• Psychological. HFT exemplifies a psychological condition usually referred to as ‘peaks and valleys.’ The elation you can feel from stacking huge profits in quick succession could turn to dread in the blink of an eye once you lose everything just as easily. This rollercoaster of emotions could strain your psyche, which is why only the most mentally prepared should consider high-frequency trading.
• External. Trading can be disrupted by factors beyond control, such as an interrupted internet connection or system glitch, leading to significant losses. Such setbacks, especially when not your fault, can be both financially and emotionally devastating. Therefore, choosing a reliable broker with VPS hosting is crucial to minimize these risks.

How to Avoid Forex and CFD Scams?

Scammers rely on the gullibility of traders. A common tactic fraudsters employ is to promise quick and easy profits at no risk to the trader. Often scammers would use labels that closely resemble the brands of real and legitimate companies. That is why regulators like the FCA have registers where traders can read about such fraudulent companies pretending to be others.

The best and easiest way to protect yourself is to make sure you work with a trustworthy and transparent broker. You can find a comprehensive list of reliable brokers by jurisdiction here.

Another important consideration is online safety. Be cautious about where you leave your personal information. Registering your details on suspicious pop-ups that promise enormous profits could lead to your contact information landing on a scammer’s dialing list. Remember, no licensed broker would make unsolicited cold calls.

The next time you get contacted out of the blue with promises of becoming the next Warren Buffet, you must remember that you are most likely speaking to a scammer. In my opinion, nowhere is the “if something sounds too good to be true…” saying more accurate than in the world of trading. That is why you should do your due diligence before opening an account with any broker.

Our Methodology

At FX Empire, we’ve developed a unique approach to evaluating forex and CFD brokers globally, focusing on traders’ needs and goals. Our aim is to deliver a detailed analysis of each broker’s strengths and weaknesses, aiding our readers in making well-informed trading decisions.

Our dedicated team works tirelessly to keep our system current with market trends, evaluating brokers across nine key categories using over 250 variables. These include Trust, Fees, Account Types, Tradable Instruments, Platforms and Tools, Deposits and Withdrawals, Customer Support, Research, and Education.

We prioritize objectivity in our rigorous reviews, avoiding personal bias. This involves examining broker licenses, client agreements, and overall transparency. Our process includes opening live accounts with brokers to test their services firsthand, and comparing spreads, swaps, and commissions against industry averages.

We assess platform functionality, the variety and types of tradable instruments, customer support reliability, and the quality of research and educational content.

In this guide, we categorized our top picks based on different trading needs and experience levels. Our criteria for selection included tight regulation, fast execution speeds (under 50 milliseconds), and versatile platforms that support high-frequency and automated trading strategies.

We chose brokers with account types favorable for high-frequency trading (HFT), examining their execution models, spreads, swaps, commissions, and the diversity of tradable instruments.

Our editorial integrity is upheld by strict guidelines and objective review standards. For more details on our review process, you can read further here.

Meet Our Writers

The team of forex and CFD analysts and editors at FXEmpire is composed of trading industry professionals and seasoned financial journalists. Our experts have been published on leading financial websites such as Investopedia and Forbes. In addition, they all have extensive trading experience.

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