5 Best Forex Brokers in New Zealand for 2024

List of Top Forex Brokers and Trading Platforms in New Zealand

Forex Trading in New Zealand

CFD trading is rapidly gaining popularity in New Zealand, with multiple brokers offering their services to New Zealand-based clients.

To operate legally in New Zealand, brokers must obtain authorization from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), the national regulatory body. Being authorized by the FMA is considered a positive attribute for brokers, providing a sense of legitimacy for forex traders. However, there are brokers regulated outside New Zealand that still offer forex trading services to local residents.

How Did FX Empire Select the Best Brokers in New Zealand?

To choose the best brokers in New Zealand, we used the FX Empire’s 250-point rating system to find the leaders in each category. We focused on the following key features:

• We chose brokers that accept New Zealand residents.
• We selected trustworthy and transparent brokers with top overall scores from our rating review system.
• We focused on brokers regulated by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
• We preferred brokers offering localization in payment methods, offices, or customer support, and those that have NZD as a base currency
• We focused on brokers that provide low trading fees.
• We listed brokers that have user-friendly and feature-rich platforms.

Our team of experts has identified brokers’ strengths and weaknesses using FX Empire’s comprehensive methodology. I subsequently used my 16 years of forex trading experience to examine and analyze all our findings, resulting in the selection of the best brokers for traders in New Zealand across various categories. You can read more about it and how we conduct our tests here.

With no further delay, let’s look at the selected brokers.

How to Choose a Forex Broker in New Zealand?

Use our guide to choose the best forex broker in New Zealand.

How to choose a safe broker as a New Zealand-based trader?

The process of choosing a broker begins with learning where your potential broker is regulated. New Zealand-based traders may choose between FMA-regulated brokers as well as brokers authorized by other regulators. Some traders would find the domestic regulation more comfortable to work with. In our research, we divide regulators into three tiers: Tier-1, Tier-2, and Tier-3.

• Tier-1 regulators have strict oversight and impose certain limits on services offered to retail clients (for example, the leverage for retail clients is usually limited at 1:30). Such regulators usually provide access to investor compensation schemes. Tier-1 regulators include CySEC, ASIC, and UK FCA.
• Tier-2 regulators also offer strict oversight but usually do not limit leverage for retail clients. In addition, investor compensation schemes are typically not available at Tier-2 regulators. FSCA is a good example of such a regulator.
• Tier-3 regulators are offshore regulators that do not impose limits on leverage for retail clients and do not provide access to compensation schemes. FSA Seychelles and FSC Mauritius are among Tier-3 regulators.
• Traders should note that some entities are not regulated. Usually, such entities are registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The absence of any regulator leads to the lowest level of protection for traders.

Traders should focus on important protection options like negative balance protection, segregated funds, and the compensation fund which will cover your back if the broker has financial problems. In our system we consider FMA as a Tier-1 regulator. Brokers regulated by FMA offer negative balance protection and segregate their funds from the funds of clients.

Check out our comprehensive guide on the best regulated forex brokers.

What fees should you focus on when choosing the broker?

Typically, brokers charge spreads, commissions, swap/rollover fees, and inactivity fees.

• The spread is the difference between the bid and the ask price. The higher the spread, the more you pay for the trade. We consider spreads below 1 pip for EUR/USD and 3 pips for GBP/JPY to be low. See our guides for the best lowest spread and best zero spread forex brokers.
• A commission is a fixed cost of entering the trade. Usually, accounts that charge commissions offer low spreads. Commissions below $3 are considered to be low for forex pairs and gold.
• A swap/rollover fee is charged when you hold a leveraged position overnight. Traders should pay extra attention to these fees if they plan to use swing trading strategies, which involve holding positions for several days or even weeks. For forex pairs, a swap rate below 0.5 pips is viewed as a good result.
• An inactivity fee is a fee that is charged by the broker if your account is dormant. In this case, a certain amount of money is charged on a monthly basis. An inactivity fee below $10 is considered to be low.

How to choose a trading platform in New Zealand?

Most brokers typically provide access to MetaTrader 4 and/or MetaTrader 5. Those are sophisticated platforms with a variety of tools tailored mainly for experienced traders. Hence, beginners may have to spend some time learning the ropes.

Some brokers have also developed their own in-house trading platforms. Such platforms are usually focused on the needs of traders of varying levels of experience. They are easy to navigate and simple to use.

The choice of trading platform depends on personal preferences and trading experience. Novice traders are advised to begin with a user-friendly platform or a mobile app, whereas experienced traders typically opt for MT4/MT5.

Read more about the platforms in our detailed guides on the best MT4  and best MT5 brokers.

What leverage is available for traders in New Zealand?

Leverage allows traders to use borrowed funds to increase their profits. The higher the leverage, the higher your potential profits are. However, always keep in mind that leverage is a double-edged sword, and using high leverage can also boost your potential losses. Thus, beginners will be better off starting with low levels of leverage to avoid outsized losses.

For those comfortable with these dynamics, FX Empire offers a guide on the best forex brokers with high leverage, carefully selected to suit specialized trading needs.

In our list of the best forex brokers in New Zealand, the maximum available leverage is 1:500.

What to avoid when choosing a forex broker in New Zealand?

Here are the five things to avoid when choosing a broker in New Zealand:

• Failing to verify regulatory compliance.
• Overlooking broker fees, such as spreads, commissions, and swap rates.
• Selecting an account type that does not match your requirements.
• Neglecting to review the range of instruments provided by the broker.
• Avoiding direct communication with the support team before opening an account.

How to avoid forex and CFD scams?

To avoid forex scams, traders should first check the broker’s regulations. If the broker is licenced by a Tier-1 regulator, you are generally well-protected. An unregulated broker is, by definition, the most suspicious. In addition to regulations, be mindful of the following red flags:

• The broker offers a substantial cash bonus for opening an account.
• The broker aggressively promotes automatic trades and/or trading signals from unknown sources.
• A broker promises profits and cites unrealistic success rates.
• You cannot find the broker’s employees on specialized websites.
• The broker’s stated address doesn’t seem suitable for a serious company (e.g., too small, located in a strange area).
• The support team does not respond or responds rarely.
• Clients report problems with funds’ withdrawal on specialized sites that publish broker reviews.

We’ve also compiled a comprehensive list of reliable brokers by jurisdiction here, to help you navigate the complex world of forex trading safely.

Our Methodology

FX Empire has been reviewing brokers since 2011 and developed an in-depth review program of CFD brokers. We have more than a decade of experience testing brokers and abide by strict guidelines for editorial integrity. Our review process follows a thorough protocol that results in a score that is based on objective criteria and measurable data. As a result of our work, we publish comprehensive and unbiased reviews, which are meant to help traders choose the broker that best suits their needs.

To choose the best broker for you, we rate them across nine categories and calculate a score that reflects their performance. The categories include:

• Trust and Stability
• Fees
• Platform and Tools
• Tradable Instruments
• Account Types
• Deposit and Withdrawal
• Research
• Customer Support
• Education

We open accounts, test platforms, measure spreads, and chat with support teams to collect as much data as possible for each broker. In total, we examine brokers according to over 250 data points.

Each category receives a rating from one star (weak) to five stars (excellent). The broker’s total score depends on its performance in each of these nine categories.

We highlight each broker’s strengths and weaknesses, explain regulatory details, and share the results of our live tests of brokers’ fees, customer support, and trading platforms. To learn more about our review process, click here.

In this article, I focused on forex brokers that are best suited for traders based in New Zealand. I have prioritized brokers offering specific features, such as FMA regulation, customer support during local hours, the availability of local deposit and withdrawal methods, and the inclusion of NZD as a base currency or trading pair.

Meet our Writers

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

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