9 Best Forex Brokers for Scalping: 2024 Edition

Exness was founded in 2008 and is regulated by the FSA of Seychelles and BVI FSC. The broker provides a decent range of standard and professional trading accounts. Scalpers will find the three professional accounts Raw Spread, Zero, and Pro the most suitable.

• Raw Spread Account. Spreads from 0.0 pips. Commission of USD 3.50 per lot, per side.
• Zero Account. Spreads from 0.0 pips. Commission of USD 0.2 per lot, per side.
• Pro Account. Spreads from 0.1 pips. Zero commission.

From our live testing, we found the live spread for EUR/USD during the US session averaged 0.8 pips with zero commission which is slightly better than the industry average. Scalpers may opt for the Zero Account instead which has lower spreads and a low commission relative to the industry average.

Each account can be opened with a minimum deposit of $200. Both the Raw Spread and Zero Accounts offer market execution, with the Zero Account also offering no requotes on price fills which means your orders will always be filled.

All of the accounts offer access to the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms, as well as the Exness mobile trading app and Exness Terminal. The Exness Terminal is a web-based platform that offers 50 drawing tools and 100 indicators. Scalpers may opt for the MT5 platform which provides 21 different timeframes, 38 inbuilt indicators, and 22 analytical tools.

Scalpers can also access level 2 quotes from the MT5 platform. This enables you to see the market depth of orders at different prices. You can also access an inbuilt forex calendar to trade the news and the algo-trading capabilities of MT4 and MT5.

Founded in 1996, Swissquote is a publicly traded Swiss bank that is listed on the SIX Swiss Stock Exchange, providing a high level of safety and transparency. As Swissquote is a bank itself, it provides deep forex liquidity by sourcing from its network of tier 1 banks which is ideal for scalping.

The bank provides the ability to trade from MT4, MT5, and its own Advanced Trader platform which is a web-based trading platform that has 50+ charting tools, 80+ technical indicators, and multiple order types.

In our live testing, we found the average spread for EUR/USD during the London session was 1.5 pips using the Standard Account. This is higher than the industry average. However, when scalping traders may opt for its Prime Account which offers lower spreads.

Scalpers may also be interested to know that the broker’s average execution speed was 9ms last year with a 100% fill ratio which is better than the industry average.

When opening an account you are automatically given a Swiss IBAN account number, with an eBanking portal and up to CHF 100,000 deposit protection.

Tickmill was founded in 2014 and has become an established broker providing an excellent range of trading platforms and tools for beginner and advanced traders. In fact, you can trade with 6 different platforms covering web, desktop, and mobile trading apps alongside extra trading tools such as Advanced Trading Toolkit and Autochartist – making Tickmil a top choice to improve your trading performance.

During the course of our live Tickmill test, I was particularly impressed by the number of trading platforms available for all levels of traders. Beginners will enjoy the ease of access to the well-known TradingView web-based platform. Tickmill is just one of a handful of brokers where you can trade directly from TradingView across 7 globally regulated futures exchanges.

Intermediate traders will be glad that Tickmill also offers access to MT4 and MT5 which have been the go-to forex trading platforms for decades. While there is a learning curve to these platforms they come packed with 80+ in-built trading indicators and the ability to create and execute algorithmic trading strategies.

If you are an advanced trader, Tickmill provides access to use the institutional-grade CQG platform. This has more than 90 inbuilt indicators, customized trade routing, depth of market (level I and level II), and a hybrid order ticket application for the best execution.

I have tried all of these platforms during the course of my 15-year trading experience and my favorite is TradingView because it is web-based and provides a high level of chart customizations from indicators, timeframes, layouts, and chart types. You can access all global markets from the platform and even create your own market scanner for fundamental metrics or technical analysis patterns.

Founded in 2006, FxPro has retail and institutional clients in over 170 countries and is regulated by multiple authorities globally, including the top-tier FCA and CySEC.

FxPro is a no-dealing desk (NDD) broker. This means there is no broker intervention in your trades with most orders being matched internally due to the high volume of its clients. A great feature provided by FxPro for the suitability of scalping with them is the fact they provide transparency regarding their executions.

From our research, most trades with FxPro are filled in under 14 milliseconds with data showing nearly 80% of market orders in 2021 were executed at the requested price with 10% of client orders receiving either a better or worse price.

Furthermore, 98.59% of trades were not requoted. This means that the broker managed to fill 98.59% of trading orders which is very impressive. Some brokers may requote the price you want to trade at as they cannot fill your order which is likely due to poor liquidity from their liquidity providers or slow technology to fill orders instantly.

The broker also provides access to high-performance trading platforms for scalpers such as MT4, MT5, cTrader, and FxPro’s own Edge platform. The MT4 and Edge platforms provide commission-free trading with marked-up floating spreads. The cTrader platform offers reduced spreads with a commission of $35 per $1 million traded.

There is a wide range of trading tools available as well as detailed market research and education resources.

Established in 1974, IG stands as a titan in the retail trading realm. As a company listed on the London Stock Exchange and overseen by international regulators, it champions both security and openness.

IG boasts a diverse portfolio of tradable assets encompassing forex, stocks, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and bonds. In a real-time fee evaluation, the EUR/USD spread averaged at 0.75 pips during prime London and New York trading hours, surpassing the standard 1.0 pip for commission-free accounts—making it a boon for scalping aficionados.

For the pros, IG’s Direct Market Access (DMA) account fetches prices straight from the interbank sector, coupled with IG’s liquidity sources. This promises the finest spreads for scalping. Though qualifying as a professional demands a rigorous assessment, all traders benefit from IG’s signal insights via third-party giants like Autochartist and PIA-First.

Scalpers are in for a treat with IG’s array of robust trading platforms. L2 Dealer is tailored for seasoned traders, while popular platforms like MT4 and ProRealTime are also available. Additionally, IG Web Trader, an ideal starter with its user-friendly interface, offers customizable layouts and a swift trading ticket on the graph—key for nimble market navigation.

FP Markets was founded in 2005 and is regulated by ASIC and CySEC and has one entity that is unregulated. The broker provides access to the MetaTrader 5 platform, as well as ECN (Electronic Communications Network) and DMA (Direct Market Access) trading accounts.

This means traders can see prices from multiple liquidity providers (typically large financial institutions) which provides a higher level of price transparency, fast trading execution, and tighter spreads starting from 0.0 pips.

From our live testing on the Standard Account, we found the spread for EUR/USD during the London session to average 1.15 pips which is slightly above the industry average. However, scalpers may opt for the Raw Account which has lower spreads and a commission of USD 3 per lot, per side which is better than the industry average.

The FP Markets ECN execution model also means there is no dealing desk intervention and no requotes. For scalpers, having this ability to enter and exit at the exact price you want is essential when trading in and out of small price movements on a frequent basis.

You can upgrade the MT5 platform with additional trading tools such as Autochartist. This is a plugin that provides automated technical analysis trading ideas from the MT5 platform.

IC Markets was founded in 2007 and is regulated by CySEC, ASIC, SCB, and FSA of Seychelles. It prides itself on offering services directly aimed at high-frequency and high-volume traders using MT5, MT5, and cTrader platforms.

Each of the account types available is based on an ECN pricing model in which IC Markets sources pricing from unrelated liquidity provides with no dealing desk intervention. This allows the broker to offer ultra-fast execution speeds as their servers are located in the NY4 and LD5 data centers in New York and London. The three main account types offered all provide access to low spreads and low fees.

From our examination of the broker’s offering using a live Standard Account the live spread for EUR/USD during the London session was 0.6 pips with zero fees which is better than the industry average.

We also found the Raw Spread Account has a commission of USD 3.50 per lot, per side with spreads from 0 pips for MT4 and MT5 trading platforms which are around the industry average.

The cTrader Account which is specifically designed for scalpers offers commissions from just USD 3.00 per lot, per side with spreads from 0 pips which is better than the industry average.

The cTrader platform is a forex and algorithmic trading platform that has been designed specifically to support high-frequency, short-term scalping strategies and algorithmic strategies.

IG has been a heavyweight in the retail trading industry since 1974 and is a publicly traded company listed on the London Stock Exchange. It launched IG US in 2019 to bring margin-based forex trading to US citizens. Registered with the CFTC and a member of the NFA, IG US offers a high level of safety and transparency.

The broker is regarded as a top choice for scalping strategies as it provides spread rebates for high-volume traders. If you trade more than $100 million in notional value a month, you can access a 5% spread rebate.

On top of this, the margin rates are very competitive, with EUR/USD only requiring 2%, which is better than what is offered to traders outside of the US. This means you only need to put up 2% of the total trade value to open trade, which is fantastic. In our live fee test, I found the spread for EUR/USD averaged 0.8 pips, beating the industry average of 1.0 pips for a zero-commission account.

Of the three trading platforms available, IG Web Trader, MT4, and ProRealTime, I found them all suitable for scalping strategies. The IG Web Trader platform has built-in trading signals on major currency pairs from third-party providers Autochartist and PIA-First. MT4 and ProRealTime are also excellent and are geared toward high-frequency, algorithmic traders.

Founded in 1996, OANDA is an award-winning broker regulated by several Tier-1 regulators worldwide. Sponsors of the New York Red Bulls, OANDA US provides an excellent range of trading tools for scalpers in the US. This includes an excellent range of trading platforms such as OANDA Web Trader, MT4, MotiveWave, MultiCharts, and TradingView.

While MT4 has been the go-to forex platform for scalping strategies for decades, the social trading platform TradingView now boasts 50 million active monthly users. I found the broker’s proprietary web platform to offer excellent features for scalpers. There are built-in indicators such as market depth, order book flow, position ratios, and a news aggregator.

The order book flow is excellent for scalpers as it provides insights into where the market orders are and the liquidity at those levels, providing more insight into where the market could move. There are over 69 forex pairs available from the OANDA Elite Trader Program account.

In our live fee test, I found the spread for EUR/USD averaged 1.45 pips, which is slightly higher than the industry average for a zero-commission trading account. However, there are cash rebates available that can save up to 34% in trading costs.