Best Brokers for Forex Options

How We Rank Brokers

Choosing which broker to sign up with is often one of the most challenging decisions facing traders, and it's certainly one of the most important. The main reason choosing an online broker is so hard is largely because there are so many of them to choose from. A simple internet search would reveal a huge range of brokers offering their services and most of them are perfectly good.

However, while it's relatively easy to find a decent broker the difficulty is in choosing which one is the most suitable for your own requirements. Not all traders need the same things from their broker, so a broker that might be a good choice for one trader may not necessarily be a good choice for you.

It is with this in mind that we created a comprehensive section on this site, dedicated to detailing the best brokers. Rather than simply produce a single list of the best services, we have actually made recommendations in a number of different categories to help you find a broker that is best for a particular purpose.

Key Factors for Forex Brokers

We believe it's also helpful to offer some advice on how to choose which of our recommendations might be best for you.  So, in addition to the recommended online forex options brokers listed above we have also covered some of the specific things you should be considering when selecting one to sign up at.

• Commission Structure
• Sign Up Incentives
• Speed & Quality of Transactions
• Customer Service

Commission Structure

Trading forex options typically involves making a number of transactions on a regular basis, which means you should try and use an online broker that charges relatively low commissions on each trade. We should point out that it is not necessarily a simple matter of choosing the very cheapest broker, as there are other factors to also take into account, but the commission structure should definitely be a big consideration.

It's important to choose a broker that has a commission structure that is suitable for the type and the amount of transactions that you will be making because, not all brokers charge their commissions in exactly the same way.

Some places charge a fixed amount of commission per contract being traded, while others charge a percentage of the value of each trade. A particularly common structure is a fixed amount per trade that covers a certain amount of contracts, and then an extra charge for each additional contract in the trade.

If you have an approximate idea of the average value of each trade you will be making, and the amount of contracts in each trade, then you can do some simple calculations and work out what structure is likely to offer you the best value in the long run. It is worth noting that a number of traders offer customers a choice of plans.

As well as the commissions that are charged per trade, a lot of brokers have a schedule of additional fees too. These can include annual or monthly account management fees, charges for using certain tools, or charges for depositing and withdrawing. Although the commissions will usually make up the majority of the costs involved with using a broker, these additional fees can sometimes be substantial too so it is worth checking out everything that a options broker charges.

Sign Up Incentives

The amount of online brokers in the market means that there'a s a lot of competition between brokers to try and attract new customers. This is great news for traders, as the end result of this is ultimately that most brokers work that bit harder to give their customers the best deals.

One particular method that's used by brokers is to offer some kind of incentive to new customers in order to encourage them to open an account with them. A common incentive is bonus funds that are added to your account when you make your first deposit, giving you extra money to trade with. Other incentives include free or reduced rate commissions for a period of time after joining, or some form of rebate on commissions once you have made a certain amount of trades.

Please be aware that most of these sign up incentives will come with terms and conditions. If you do claim a sign up bonus then you will usually have to pay a certain amount in commissions before you will be able to make a withdrawal from your account. Some of these bonuses can in fact never be withdrawn and can only be used for the purposes of making trades, although you do get to keep any profits that you make when using the bonus.

The terms and conditions at the best brokers will usually be perfectly fair, but you should make sure you understand what they are before signing up and depositing your funds.

Speed & Quality of Transactions

Trading options and forex options in particular often requires quick reactions and it can be essential to move quickly in order to enter or exit a position at precisely the right time if a trade is going to be profitable. Because of this, it's vital that your broker executes your transactions as quickly as possible after your order is placed.

Just a short delay can result in your order not getting filled at the best prices or possibly not getting filled at all, which can obviously impact your profits. To be fair, the best online brokers are all very good in this respect but it is still something that you should be conscious of.

Customer Service

A lot of traders don't even think about the quality of the customer service when they are signing up with an online broker. It probably isn’t the most important thing to consider, but it is still much better to get good customer service as a poor service can be very frustrating to say the least.

Of course, if you stick to using reputable brokers then the chances are that you will have very little need to contact customer service – but there are bound to be some occasions when you encounter a problem or have a question you want to ask. A good way to test the customer service at an online broker is to give them a call or send them an email with some questions before you sign up, and see how quickly they respond and how helpful they are.

Summary

The best advice we can give on this subject is really just to put some thought into choosing an online broker. If you spend a little bit of time and effort into thinking about exactly what you want from your options broker then it makes it much easier to determine which broker is best for you.

We have made the task much easier for you, as you can be safe in the knowledge that all of the places we have recommended are very good, but it is still worth comparing our recommendations yourself and working out which one is the most suitable for you and your own requirements.