Pepperstone Review

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. This content is intended for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or investment recommendation.

Pepperstone is an Australia based online broker that offers market access to multiple financial assets, including forex, CFDs, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. With raw spreads, instant trade execution, and social trading facilities, the broker offers value for money. Traders looking for a reliable trading solution with competitive pricing might find pepperstone to be the best fit for their trading needs. 

Overview 

Founded in 2010, Pepperstone is an Australian forex and CFD broker providing trading services to its customers all around the world. In 2014, the company received the Financial Review Fast Starter award for achieving the milestone of $60 Million revenue with an annual growth rate of 66 percent. 

After the inquiry raised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) concerning the unregulated service offering to the Japanese citizens, the broker stopped accepting clients from Japan the same year. The company has now extended its services to the citizens of the UK, Australia, and Dubai in full authorization from the FCA, ASIC, and DFSA, under the command of Tamas Szabo, CEO – Pepperstone. 

Pepperstone has its headquarter in the Bahamas. The company provides 24/5 customer support through web chat, telephone, and email service. 

Clients may contact the company using the given below channels:

Telephone No. +613 9020 0155
Email  Id: support@pepperstone.com 
Official Address: Sea Sky Lane, B201 Sandyport, Nassau
New Providence, The Bahamas

Who Pepperstone is for? 

Pepperstone is equally suitable for both beginners and skilled trading experts. Clients can Learn different trading strategies without losing real funds using the demo accounts. On the other hand, copy trading services help traders to start making money right from the day one. Lightning-fast trade execution enables scalpers to benefit from small market moves. The broker also offers premium client services and cash rebates through the active trader program that attracts high volume traders. Overall, the broker is a win-win option for both retail and institutional investors.  

Sign up bonus: The broker does not offer any sign-up bonus at present.

Is Pepperstone Safe? 

Pepperstone ensures maximum safety measures to protect the funds of their clients as well as  their financial information. In addition to offering indemnity insurance in compliance with ASIC Regulatory Guide 126 and Section 912B of the Corporations Act 2001, the broker also holds registration with FSCS. The aforementioned fund protection programs enable clients to seek compensation against their financial losses up to a specific limit in case the company goes into liquidation. 

Adhering to strict anti-money laundering measures, Peppestone produces audited accounts with required disclosure formalities. The broker also keeps clients’ money in segregated accounts with the National Bank of Australia.  On the other hand, FCA regulations require the broker to have enough capital funds available for ensuring maximum liquidity levels. 

The broker also employs 2F-Authentication to secure clients’ confidential data along with the latest web encryption security protocols, making any unauthorized access impossible.

Conclusively, multiple regulations in different regions of the world, including Australia, Dubai, and the United Kingdom, makes the broker a safe investment firm.

Offering of Investments 

Pepperstone has a reasonable product portfolio to offer. Clients can trade sixty-one forex pairs, including major currencies. As far as trading of CFDs is concerned, a total of 127 CFDs are available to trade across different classes of assets such as indices, commodities, shares, and cryptocurrencies. Since countries have varying regulation standards, therefore, the list of the offerings may vary depending upon the traders’ home country. If you are looking to trade any specific asset with Pepperstone, I would suggest confirming its availability with the broker before opening an account with it. 

Commissions & Fees 

Pepperstone’s pricing model is also quite competitive as compared to the average industry standards.  The broker offers two types of accounts, including Standard & Razor. The Razor account has institutional grade spreads with no added markups. The average spread in the Razor account hovers between 0.0 to 0.3 pips with a round turn commission of $7 on every 100k traded volume. Scalpers and algorithmic traders might find the Razor account more appealing as compared to the standard one. 

On the other hand, the Standard account is suitable for novice traders since it doesn’t have any associated commission. However, spread costs are higher when compared to the Razor account. The average spread costs vary between 1.0 pips to 1.3 pips. Clients might also need to pay added markups besides paying higher spread charges. 

Also, it is pertinent to mention here that the commission may vary depending upon traders’ base currency, selected account type, and chosen platform. 

As far as the minimum deposit amount is concerned, the broker suggests depositing $200 initially. However, clients can choose to get started even lower than the specified amount for deposits. The broker supports multiple deposit and withdrawal methods, including Bank transfers, Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, and Paypal, etc. 

Platforms & Tools 

Besides offering a proprietary trading platform, Pepperstone focuses on facilitating its customers through the world’s most popular third-party trading platforms Mt4 and Mt5. Hence, it provides access to a full suite of cTrader, and MT4/MT5 trading platforms that are supported across all electronic devices. 

Talking about features that come with MT4/MT5 trading platforms, clients can customize the trading platforms according to their trading needs. By identifying major market moves using the Autochartists tool, traders can make educated trading decisions. The broker also provides access to 28 technical indicators through its smart trader tools. Clients can also build and run their customized expert advisors using the MQL4. 

For copy trading services, clients can use DupliTrade, Myfxbook AutoTrade, and Mirrortrader platforms. However, the minimum deposit amount for the copy trading subscription is relatively higher that is at least $5000.  

Although both cTrader and Metatrader have promising features, still traders prefer the cTrader web-based platform. One of the reasons could be the availability of more trading tools on cTrader as compared to the MT4/MT5 trading platforms. However, MetaTrader 4 and Meta Trader 5 have a built-in social trading feature that is missing with the cTrader. cTrader users need to install a separate cAlgo app for copy trading services.                                     

Research  

Pepperstone offers a comprehensive range of research tools. With three heads, including market analysis, market news, and economic calendar, the broker fulfils the research needs of its customers. The quality of the content present in the research section is commendable. The market analysis features coverage of major economic events with commentary from experts as well as discussion videos. The news section talks about the recent economic happenings across the globe and its potential impact on specific currencies. The economic calendar helps traders to keep an eye on the economic events coming ahead. 

Overall, the research section seems in line with traders’ needs, but with some more MT4/MT5 research tools, the broker could have improved its research section facility. 

Education  

Pepperstone’s education section seems to be well managed. With enough resources being offered, including video tutorials and learning guides on FX pairs and CFD trading, the broker also conducts live webinars. Clients who find one-to-one interactions more convenient can subscribe for daily webinars with the broker.  Detailed articles covering a wide range of topics help beginners to get their hands on every bit of trading. The broker also discloses information about its expert panelists so traders could rest assured that the quality of educational material is up to the mark. 

Mobile Trading 

Pepperstone offers multiple mobile-based trading platforms, including MT4/MT5 and cTrader mobile apps. Clients can download their preferred app from android or apple’s app stores. All versions of mobile apps offer almost the same trading features as offered through desktop platforms. For optimization of trading strategies and better risk management, the MT4/MT5 suite of smart trader tools is available on mobile apps as well.  Some of the key features that come with mobile apps include more than 25 technical indicators, analytical objects, history of trades, and financial market news. Clients can also view charts in 09-time frames to analyze the performance of a specific financial asset. Traders can also make the best use of one-touch trading to open and close positions with a few simple clicks. 

Final Thoughts 

Keeping in view the broker’s multiple regulations and quality of trading services, I cannot resist myself naming Pepperstone to be one of the best brokers operating in the forex industry. With a super-fast trade execution model, low spread costs, multiple trading platforms, and round the clock customer support, Pepperstone thrives to become a market leader in forex and CFD trading.