Between 74-89 % of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs
Minimum Deposit
$200
Regulators
ASIC, FCA
EURUSD Spread
0.1 pips
US Traders
No
Platforms
MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader
Founded
2010
Country
Australia

Founded back in 2010, Pepperstone offers institutional style trading to its retail clients, without any catches. The Forex/CFD brokerage – which is fully licensed in the UK, the EEA and Australia – features no fewer than 11 trading platforms, as well as a more than decent selection of trading instruments. Cryptocurrency-based CFDs can be traded at the brokerage too.

The UK branch of Pepperstone is operated by Pepperstone Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pepperstone Group Ltd. Unlike the Pepperstone Group itself, Pepperstone Ltd was launched in 2016. Based in London, and registered as a UK company under number: CN 08965105, the operation is registered with the FCA under number: FRN 684312. Focused on UK and EEA-based clients, this branch of the brokerage  keeps its clients’ monies in segregated accounts with Barclays.

Pepperstone Group Ltd on the other hand, is the corporate owner and peddler of the Pepperstone brand and services in Australia. Registered under company number ACN 147 055 703, the operator is licensed by ASIC with license number AFSL 414 530. The bank used for the keeping of client funds is the National Australia Bank.

Why exactly should you pick Pepperstone as your Forex/CFD broker though?

The operation is said to have been set up by traders for traders and as such, the team behind it understands what traders need, better than anyone else.

The Pepperstone trading conditions are said to be excellent. The margin requirements are low, the maximum available leverage is in the neighborhood of 1:500, and on some underlying assets, the spreads do indeed start from 0.0 pips.

Creating a real money account at the brokerage is simple and accessible for everyone. The minimum required deposit is just AUD 200. The execution technology featured by the brokerage is superb as well, though in this regard, there have indeed been user complaints (mostly about slippage).

The Pepperstone support staff is proclaimed the best support in the business. From the limited dealings we’ve had with this department, staff seemed to be highly professional and knowledgeable indeed.

Pepperstone Trading Products

The trading instrument selection offered by the operator is indeed quite superb. In addition to their Forex selection – which currently covers more than 70 currency pairs from majors all the way to exotics – they also offer access to precious metals,  like Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium, and even cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Dash, Litecoin and Ethereum.

As far as Forex is concerned, the major pairs feature some of the best trading conditions available at this currency broker. The spreads on the EUR/USD for instance, start from as little as 0.0 pips. The maximum available leverage is 500:1, and the margin requirements are more than decent.

The index CFDs, some 13 of them, cover most of the global economy, giving traders another dimension through which they trade various global economic events.

The Energy section is mostly about gas and oil. Interestingly, the trading conditions on these asset classes are as attractive as they are on the above mentioned Forex pairs.

The Soft Commodities section is a different story though. Assets such as sugar, cotton, cocoa and orange juice carry bigger spreads and margin requirements, though the opportunities they offer are rather unique and intriguing indeed.

For those into cryptocurrencies, the crypto section is arguably the most interesting one at Pepperstone. These financial instruments carry some rather shabby trading conditions – compared to Forex that is – but their high volatility and generally unstable nature more than justifies that. The maximum leverage on cryptos is only 5:1 for instance. It has to be pointed out that like the commodities and indexes described above, Pepperstone’s cryptos are CFDs. What that means is that those trading such cryptos will not get to actually possess them. They will only be trading a financial derivative, based on the price variation of the underlying asset, and not the actual asset itself.

Pepperstone Account Types

To dip a toe into the trading offer Pepperstone peddles, one can just open a Demo account. The Demo account comes with plenty of virtual funds, and it can indeed be set up within a short minute. The MT4-based web trader offered by Pepperstone is a great match for a demo account, as it can be fired right up, without the need to download and to install. The web trader is a very capable platform too: it comes with a host of preinstalled technical indicators, as well as drawing- and trading tools.

The Edge Standard account is a zero commission account, which is indeed the most basic real money account one can open at Pepperstone. Spreads on this account start from 0.6 pip, so in this regard it is not the most attractive. STP execution is apparently also part of the Edge Standard package.

The Edge Razor account is a commission-carrying account, which offers some superb spreads. Indeed, this is the account where the spreads on the EUR/USD start from 0.0 pips. The average spread on the same currency pair does not go above 0.6 pips. The minimum required deposit for account-opening is AUD 200 or equivalent in this case, too. Several account base-currencies are available. Besides AUD, USD, EUR and GBP, traders can make their deposits in PLN and CHF too. Scalping, hedging and the use of EAs are all allowed on the Razor account.

The swap-free account is in essence the Islamic trading account offered by the brokerage. It does not charge any commissions and it is therefore fully Swap-Free. The swap-free account features STP execution, and the average spread on the EUR/USD spans the 0.6-0.8 pip range. This account type allows scalping, hedging and EAs as well.

The Active Traders account brings a massive number of perks to the table. Focused on institutional and high-volume retail traders, this account type provides a dedicated account manager, advanced reporting features, custom 3rd party trading solutions and advanced VPS hosting options.

Pepperstone Trading Platforms

Pepperstone feature no fewer than 11 different trading platforms, covering PCs, Macs, web trading and various mobile devices. The centerpiece of the Pepperstone platform offer is MT4, in its downloadable, Windows-based form. It can be fetched off the site for free. It comes with a host of preinstalled technical indicators and tools, savvy traders can put to use in predicting the price-swings of their traded assets. One-click trading directly off the charts is possible as well.

In addition to a Mac-compatible version of MT4, Pepperstone have made MT5 available as well. Through MT5, the creation of custom indicators and even EAs is much easier.

The Pepperstone Web trader is an MT4-based platform as well, as are the trading platforms created for iOS and Android-based mobile devices.

The cTrader platform suite comes with a desktop trader and a web trader as well. It also supports mobile devices. The apps needed for installation can be downloaded from the Pepperstone website.

Conclusion

Pepperstone is a solid, global Forex and CFD brokerage, with offices in Australia, China, the UK, the US and Thailand. The brokerage features great trading conditions and execution (though some of their users have complained about slippage), and a superb selection of trading platforms.

In addition to all the above-discussed, Pepperstone also offer MAM/PAMM account options to their users.

Between 74-89 % of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs