For new traders who are still trying to find an appropriate forex broker for themselves, this article is for you because in this article I will give you a review about FBS – one of the best forex brokers for the Asian regions in 2018, especially in Thailand and Indonesia. Founded in 2009, FBS allows traders to trade up to 35 currency pairs, 4 precious metals, 2 CFD, and cryptocurrencies.
When finding the best brokers, we need to have the criteria to rate them. Here, criteria means the fundamentals that any brokers who want to become the best should meet. Such criteria include:
- Credibility
- Regulations
- Trading costs
- Spread
- Commission
- Bonuses
- Trading conditions
- Account types
- Payment systems
- quotes quality
- Customer support
- Local offices
- Availability
The details about the above criteria are presented as follow:
- Credibility
When talking about credibility or reliability, we of course will associate it to regulations as regulations are the first and foremost factor to judge a broker. So what are regulations? They are the licenses brokers receive from trusted financial organizations. Also, regulations mean the things ensuring brokers have to follow a certain set of rules in order to guarantee traders’ safety. The fact is that only large forex brokers can reach the requirements of those regulations. FBS obtains two of most reliable regulations which are CySEC and IFSC. As a result, you can feel secure when trading with FBS.
In this category, there is one thing I think I need forex traders to understand. It is not true that the broker who has more regulations is better than those who have less. The number of regulations will depend on two scenarios. In the event that your country already has a regulation, you ought to work with broker who has that regulation. Your own country’s regulation is enough. For example, FBS has IFSC, a South African regulation; traders in South Africa hence can be safe when trading with FBS. On the contrary, your country has no regulation, you then had better to trade with brokers obtaining at least one trusted regulation such as CySEC. Here I would like to indicate that regulations are just signals showing you the decency, reliability and safety of brokers. So, too many regulations will only put more limits on the broker. A broker only needs one trusted regulation.
- Trading costs
- Spread:
Naturally, low-spread brokers will attract most traders to do business with them. What does spread mean? It means the difference between the Ask price and the Bid price of a currency pair. For FBS, its spread is only from 0.2 to 1.1 pips which is in the top low spread brokers. And its spreads are much lower than XM, FXTM, FXCM, etc.
- Commission:
Like other brokers, FBS also charges commissions for income. Based on the types of account, FBS has different commission rates. Cent and Standard accounts have no commission.
- Bonuses:
There are many types of bonuses offered by FBS like deposit bonus, welcome bonus, or loyalty program. Their bonus can be up to $123 – the highest rate ever. Their deposit bonus gives back trader 100% of the deposit amount. Moreover, they also provide the cashback program, which rebate you $7 for every lot traded.
- Trading conditions
- Account types:
The account types of FBS include Cent account, Standard account, Fixed Spread account and the ECN account. Every single one of them has its own features that are appropriate for different types of traders. Followings are the details of each type for you to refer.
- Cent account: This type is suitable for beginners or new traders. That’s because the required deposit is only $1. No one wants to put too much money when first start trading as 90% of new brokers loses everything when they begin trading. With only $10, you will be able to practice trading in real-life conditions for up to 3 months. Besides, the order volume is from down to 0.01 lots Cent up to 1000 lots. Especially, this type of account charges no commission; you hence can trade as much as you want without costing a penny.
- Standard account: This type is used for traders with a bit more experience. The minimum deposit is average, at about $100. The spread is only around 0.5 pips. The leverage is pretty high -up to 1:3000. The order volume is from 0.01 to 500 lots. Similar to Cent account, standard account is commission free.
- Fixed Spread account (Zero Spread account): This type of account has no spread. Instead, it charges traders $20 for commission. This is understandable because spread is main income of brokers. If the spread is zero, the broker must charge commission. Its minimum deposit is $500. Like standard account, its leverage is 1:3000, and the order volume is from 0.01 to 500 lots.
- ECN account: This is an appropriate type for experts and long-term traders. The minimum deposit required is also pretty high – $1000. However, the commission is much lower in comparison with other brokers.
- Payment system:
The truth is that some US or UK brokers are very good in their country, but overseas, they are relatively bad, especially in Asian countries like Thailand or Indonesia. In Asia, traders have to pay from 1.7 to 4$ of their entire fund for depositing by credit cards. I think it is unacceptable because having a profit rate at 5% monthly is hard enough and now they have to pay 4% just for depositing. Therefore, Thai traders should not trade with those US and UK brokers. As a result, choosing brokers offering local payment systems is vital. In this field, FBS is a perfect choice. Why so? That’s because they offer depositing and withdrawing through almost all local banks and e-wallets in Asian countries. Moreover, their transferring speed is so wonderful. It only takes from half to an hour to complete the transactions through the banks, while other brokers can waste you hours or even days.
- Customer support:
In a complex environment like forex market, customer care is vital. Traders constantly need as much help and support from brokers as possible. Thus, how a broker assists its clients is a criterion to evaluate that broker. According to me, FBS supporting team is fantastic as they can support clients in English 24/7 on live chat. For non-English speakers, they also have local offices in some countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand, China, Korea and Myanmar, and they are always ready to help customers 5 days a week.
