Would you be surprised if I tell you that there are only a handful of off-shore forex brokers that accept US clients? The country with the biggest economy in the World, the leading advocate of the free market economy and the one that houses Wall Street, is really strict and careful when it comes to the derivatives markets, especially investing in leveraged foreign exchange.
Glad that I am not US citizen or residing there. Mind that the law applies not only to US citizens but also to residents. This means that you could be a non-US citizen but you will still have restrictions if you are a legal resident in the US.
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Why don’t many brokers accept US traders?
It has all started with Great Financial Crisis (GFC), guys. Those of you who have watched the documentary Inside Job or the movie Big Short already got an idea on what I am going to say about strict rules in the US about leveraged investment. Brokers with a passion for big profit have created exotic investment products that promise very high returns for the clients. The clients are not aware of the risk that they are taking by buying those derivative products due to the their complexity.
After the big US banks went bust at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 – 2009, watchdogs like CFTC, SEC and NFA decided to tighten the screws in financial sector as a solution to moral hazard problem. Leveraged products got its lion share on these new stricter financial rules and forex was one of those scapegoats.
Thanks to those stricter rules, the leverage is lower compared to other jurisdictions and required capital to operate in the USD is much higher compared to its peers. Thus profit prospects are not that attractive and we don’t see a lot of forex brokers based in the USD.
Forex Brokers that Accept Clients From US
These are the forex brokers that accepts clients who reside in the US; Forex.com is the first one in my list while AAFX Trading follows as second and FxChoice as the third. The ranking depends on several important criteria for forex traders such as regulation, reliability, customer service, trading conditions, deposit & withdrawal methods, bonus and promotions.
FOREX.COM
Forex.com is one of the few forex brokers that accept clients from the US. The brand is owned and operated by an industry giant; GAIN Capital Holdings who has been around for more than 20 years. The important point is that Forex.com is headquartered and regulated by CFTC and NFA in the US which means that Forex.com is not an off-shore entity. I would recommend Forex.com for all my followers who are residents of the US. It is a reliable and customer oriented forex broker. If safety of your funds and reliability is your primary concern, then Forex.com is the best answer between the three forex brokers that accepts clients from the US.
Forex.com Account Types
Forex.com offers two different account types; Standard Account and ECN Account. Spreads goes as low as 1.0 pips for EURUSD on Standard Account which is very competitive compared to industry standards. Minimum initial deposit required for Standard Account is zero which means that you can open an account and verify it without depositing any funds. The Broker also offers ECN like account on their exclusive trading platform called Advanced Trading Platform.
Forex.com Customer Support
Forex.com provides customer support in four languages; English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic. Live Chat is prompt to answer your questions and very informative. There is customer support for 24 hours. The Broker offers extensive market analysis and educational material on their web site.
Forex.com Trading Platforms
Forex.com offers its own exclusive trading platform called Advanced Trading Platform in addition to conventional MetaTrader 4. So, clients are given chance to choose between those two trading platforms. Advanced Trading Platform comes with a highly customizable dashboard and trade preferences, useful charting tools, more than 80 technical indicators, extensive drawing tools and integrated trading strategies with hundreds of predefined templates to choose from.
Forex.com Withdrawal and Deposit Methods
Investors can deposit and withdraw funds by credit card, bank card and wire transfer. Digital wallets such as Neteller, Skrill, Sofort are not available for the moment.
AAFX Trading
AAFX is also among those rare forex brokers accepting clients from the US. It is headquartered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and regulated by SVG FSA. The company is founded in 2013, so passes one of my criteria of being a reliable forex broker. Negative balance protection feature should be noted as well. Not too many forex firms provide this feature. Those of you who have been trading since 2015 (SNB’s abrupt EURCHF 1.20 removal) would know the significance of Negative Balance Protection. Spreads are tight and they offer a lot of options in terms of deposit / withdrawing funds.
AAFX Trading Account Types
AAFX Trading provides two different forex trading account types for its clients. The first one is Fixed Account. As you can guess from the name, the spreads on instruments don’t change depending on the time of the day or volatility. Spreads are fixed and 2 pips for majors. Traders can choose between USD, GBP and EUR for their account currency. Maximum leverage is 1:2000 for accounts up to $20000 and 1:1000 for account bigger than $20000. AAFX Trading doesnt charge any commission on the top of spreads for executed trades. Traders are allowed to use Expert Advisors (EA) on this account type and minimum deposit is $100.
The second account type is ECN Account. ECN Account has exact same specifications with Fixed Account other than spreads. Spreads could go as low as 0.3 pips on ECN Account compared and the spreads are variable.
AAFX Trading Customer Support
AAFX Trading offers customer support in many languages including Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Indian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese. There is Live Chat feature on the web site where you can get accurate and quick answers to your inquiries. Another important point about AAFX Trading is that the Company is one of the rare off-shore forex brokers that accept clients from the US as I mentioned at the introduction of the review.
AAFX Trading Platforms
MetaTrader 4 is the trading platform that AAFX Trading offers to its clients. In addition to PC desktop version, MetaTrader 4 for MAC, MetaTrader Web and MetaTrader Mobile are also provided by request. MetaTrader 4 is the most commonly used trading platform that comes with a huge bag of trading, charting and monitoring features such as Expert Advisors, Technical Indicators and 9 different timeframes. AAFX Trading doesnt only provides the trading platform but also offers informative tutorials for the novice traders who have not used MetaTrader 4 before.
AAFX Trading Withdrawal and Deposit Methods
AAFX Trading clients can use eight different methods for depositing and withdrawaing money. These methods are Wire Transfer, Debit Card, Credit Card, Web Money, Skrill, Neteller, Fasapay, Bitcoin. I should point out that there are not too many forex brokers that offer Bitcoin as deposit and withdrawal method. Even though, international wire transfer and credit card are my two favorites for financial transactions with forex brokers, having Bitcoin as an option is a big plus.
FXChoice
FXChoice opens account for investors who are residents of the US as well. Having outstanding expertise as a broker in CFD as well as Forex trading for fund managers, private clients and institutional investors, FX Choice has been around almost for 10 years trying to provide the best service and support to their clients. Their extraordinary service earned FXChoice the prestigious Exceptional Customer Service award by LiveHelpNow 5 times in the year 2016 alone.
One of the things that make FXChoice really special is the fact that they allow traders to trade on more than 40 currency pairs and a plethora of other CFDs. And they offer their clients with amazing trading experience with the help of two exceptional platforms. As a matter of fact, FXChoice executes more than 15000 transactions in a day with the help of their NDD technology.
FxChoice Account Types
There are two types of accounts that are available for the clients of FXChoice. While one of them is a named classic, the other one has been named pro. These two account types have a basic difference amongst them. The accounts belonging to the classic type are completely commission free; thus they come with wider spreads. On the other hand, the pro account type is commission based so they provide the clients with tighter spread as per the norms of ECN. Plus, you can avail either MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 trading platform as per your choice only if you are using the Pro account. Apart from that, you will have the choice for opening a corporate or individual account as per your wish.
FxChoice Trading Platforms
FxChoice provides their clients with a myriad of choices on the trading platforms. MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, as well as Myfxbook Autotrade these are the trading platforms that a client can choose between. When it comes to the MT4 and MT5 platforms, they do not only offer access to the CFD and forex market but they also help the clients to invest in the options and futures market. Moreover, the MT5 platform allows the client to trade in the stock market too.
FxChoice Withdrawal and Deposit Methods
FXChoice offers their clients to deposit and withdraw funds using different methods. From the debit card, credit cards, e-wallets, Fasapay, Bitcoin, Skrill, Neteller to Perfect Money, ePayments, Trustly, Astropay and PaySafeCard.
Does FxChoice offer PAMM accounts for US residents? While it’s hard to find a broker who accepts us clients but i need PAMM accounts or which broker you advice for PAMM in th world?
I dont really understand how the hell in this earth US can ban companies in other countries from accepting US customers? For example, say that I am US citizen and I want to open account with a CySEC regulated broker, but they warned me that they cant accept clients from the US. Why? Have US and Cyprus governments made an agreement about it?
which broker is more trusted,,, I am not US citizen but I reside in California, many forex broker tell me I cant open account, AAFX or Fxchoice?
CFTC should go after those bankers who made their pockets deep between 2002 – 2009… not the forex brokers.