Pepperstone

Pepperstone is a big and well-known forex broker that also offers speculation on stocks, indices, commodities, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

A few examples of things I like about Pepperstone:

• Over 60 different forex pairs to speculate on, plus forex indices. Availabile base currencies are USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, JPY, and CHF.
• Fast execution. Pepperstone is an ECN/STP broker with excellent execution speeds.
• Ultra-tight forex spreads for certain heavily traded currency pairs. With the special Razor Account type, it is even possible to do trades where the spread is 0.0.
• With my Pepperstone account, I get access to MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), cTrader, and TradingView. Having access to both the MT-family of platforms and the major rival cTrader from the same account has been a really nice experience.
• Pepperstone is approved by seven different license givers, including ASIC, FCA and CySEC which are all known to be strict. The CySEC license is valid within the whole European Union since Cyprus is a membership country.
• Capitalise.ai can be used to create automated strategies and it works even for people who do not have coding experience.
• The support is staffed 24/7, so I can always get help right away, even if I am trading outside office hours.

A few examples of things I do not like:

• The registration process took over 30 minutes. I understand that it is partly because Pepperstone is licensed by strict countries that have high requirements, but it is still a bit annoying.
• The Demo Account expires automatically after 30 days. This did give me plenty to time to explore Pepperstone, but it would have been nice to keep it around for testing out new strategies with play-money in the future.
• For me, finding a suitable method for deposits and withdrawals here was not a problem, but the list of available options is pretty short compared to some of the competitors and some traders will no doubt find that their favourites are not included.
• Sometimes, Pepperstone is pretty slow when it comes to processing my withdrawal requests.
• The live chat starts with a support robot, and I actively have to ask to be put in touch with a human instead.

Additional info:

• Fee discounts are available for high-volume trader. This does not pertain to me since I am a small-scale trader. Just putting it in here for those of you for whom it may be relevant.
• Pepperstone does not accept United States traders.
• Peppestone offers two Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting services, but they are not free unless you are eligible under the Active Trader program.
• Pepperstone has not banned hedging, scalping and netting, making them an attractive choice for traders who like these trading methods. The Pepperstone Razor account has become especially popular among forex scalpers.

Regulation

Pepperstone is regulated in several different countries, so which license you will fall under varies depending on your jurisdiction. It is a good idea to check this in advance, so you know which regulation that will apply. Legally speaking, falling under the auspices of a strict body such as the UK FCA is not the same as trading through a Pepperstone subsidiary based in the Bahamas.

Licenses held by Pepperstone:

• UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in Germany
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)
• the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB)
• the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in Kenya

How to open a free Pepperstone demo account – it took me less than 5 minutes!

A Pepperstone demo account is a great way to find out if you like Pepperstone and try out the various platforms. The demo account is free and comes with $50,000 in play-money. It is active for 30 days.

1. Go to the Pepperstone site and click on Try Demo.

2. Sign-up using an existing account (e.g. Google or Facebook) or select Continue with email.
3. Select country of residence from the drop-down menu.
4. Select the account type Individual.
5. Enter personal information, including your name, date of birth, phone number, and email address.
6. Create a password.
7. Click on Start Trading With Demo.
8. A new window will appear and in this window you select which platform for explore, account type, base currency, and virtual balance. Then click on Submit.
9. Log-in credentials will be on display on the next screen and they will also be sent to the email address you provided.
10. Launch the selected platform and start trading with your play-money.

How to apply for a real-money account

Completing the application process for a real-money account is, understandably, more time consuming than getting a demo account. It took me over 30 minutes to finish. It is not complicated, but it involves many steps and each step takes some time to complete.

1,) Sign up using an existing account (e.g. Facebook or Google) or click on Continue With Email.

2. Select your country of residence in the drop-down menu.
3. Select Individual account.
4. Enter your personal information, including name, date of birth, phone number and email address.
5. Create a password.
6. Click on Set Up A Live Account.
7. Select trading platform, account type, base currency. For the MT4 and MT5 platforms, you will need to create a password.
8. Enter more personal information for the KYC-check. This includes information such as trading experience, income and employment.
9. You will be redirected to the client area, where you must complete a test, and add more personal information. Do the account declaration.
10. To complete the KYC-check, upload a photo of your identity card and proof of address.
11. Submit application.

How to make a deposit

Making deposits into my Pepperstone account is quick and easy.

1. Sign in
2. In the client area, select Funds from the left-side menu.
3. Click Add Funds.
4. Select a transaction method from the list.
5. Enter the amount.
6. Click Deposit.

Account types

Two account types are available:

• Standard Account
• Razor Account

Both accounts will give you access to all instruments and the minium forex trading volume is just 0.01 lot, which is a plus for me as a small-scale trader. You can use the big third-party trading platforms MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5) and cTrader regardless of account type.

Standard account

With this account, you do not pay any commissions on forex trading. Instead, the broker makes money from the higher, variable spreads. The floating spreads average around 1 pip for most major currency pairs. This is okay, but not as low as you get with accounts/brokers where you pay a commission.

Important: This information is for forex trading. For certain other types of trading, you will pay a commission when using the Standard account.

Razor account

I would recommend this account to high-volume forex traders who want really low spreads. For some of the currency pairs, the spread can go down to 0 pips, which is awesome. You will pay a commission however.

At the time of writing, the lowest possible round-turn commission for forex is $6, which would be horrible for a micro-traders but is fine for bigger traders. (It is $3 per lot per side.) We found this commission level at the cTrader and TradingView platforms. At MT4 and MT5, the commission was $3.50 per lot per side, i.e. $7 round-turn.

You also get certain perks from having a Razor account, such as access to TradingView charts and analytics.

Swap-free Account

With Standard accounts and Razor accounts, swap fees will be charged for positions that are kept open over night. For traders in certain countries, Pepperstone offers a swap-free account, also known as Muslim / Islam / Sharia / Halal account. You will be paying admin fees instead of swap fees.

Tip! If you are looking for a swap-free account and Pepperstone is not offering it in your country, you can check out the brokers Plus500 and AvaTrade instead, since they are known for offering swap-free accounts in a wider range of countries.

Execution

Pepperstone is an ECN/STP broker with reliable executions and excellent execution speeds. There is no dealing desk.

You can expect execution speeds of 30 ms here, which is very competitive. (Anything below 100 ms is considered fast.) Pepperstone utilizes tier-one liquidity providers and banks to achieve this.

Forex trading and speculation

Over 60 currency pairs are available, including majors, minors and exotics.

Examples of available pairs:

• USD/CAD
• USD/CHF
• USD/JPY
• EUR/AUD
• EUR/GBP
• EUR/USD
• GBP/USD
• AUD/NZD
• AUD/USD
• NZD/USD

Using CFDs

A lot of the forex speculation here is carried out using Contracts for Difference (CFDs) which means you gain exposure to currency exchange rates without actually having to buy, own and sell currency. CFDs also makes it very easy to speculate on both rising and falling prices. Leveraged CFD trading is available.

Forex index speculation

In addition to speculating on forex pairs, you can also speculate on forex indices with this broker. Examples of available indices are the US Dollar Index and the Euro Currency Index.

Non-forex trading and speculation

You can use Pepperstone to speculate on a lot of things that are not forex, including cryptocurrency, equity, commodities, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Exactly which instruments and underlying assets that are available will vary somewhat in order to comply with local laws and regulations.

Cryptocurrency

Traders in applicable jurisdictions can gain exposure to cryptocurrencies without actually having to buy and own cryptocurrency. Examples of available cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ether (Ethereum), Ripple, and Dash. The cryptocurrencies are traded against the USD.

Stock speculation

The share prices of well-known exchange-traded companies in various countries are available for speculation, including companies based in locations such as the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, and Hong Kong. AT&T, National Bank Australia, Airbnb, and Unilever are included – just to mention a few.

Stock index speculation

Get exposure to stock indices focused on various parts of the world, including baskets of companies listed on certainb exchanges in North America, Europe, Oceania, Asia, or Africa. Examples of available indices are S&P 500, FTSE 100, and AUS 200.

Commodity speculation

Both energies, metals and agricultural commodities are available. You can, for instance, gain exposure to crude oil, gold, silver, coffee, and cocoa.

Exchange-traded fund (ETF) speculation

Choose between industry-specific funds, region-specific funds and other specializations. You can, for instance, get exposure to SPDR S&P Bank, iShares China 25 and iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF.

Using leverage with Pepperstone

Pepperstone must comply with national law and the license requirements when providing leverage. This is especially noticeable for non-professional traders, as many countries and authorities have rules in place to prevent non-professional traders from using leverage above a certain limit. CySEC does for instance impose a 1:30 general limit, and then special – even lower – limits for certain types of trades that CySEC deems to be especially risky, e.g. speculation that involves cryptocurrency.

When Pepperstone is not limited, e.g. for professional traders and in certain more relaxed jurisdictions, they offer up to 1:500 leverage.

Negative Account Balance Protection

Some jurisdiction require Negative Account Balance Protection for non-professional clients. Make sure you understand what Negative Account Balance Protection entails before you start trading using leverage.

Margin trading

The MT4 and MT5 platforms have a 90% margin call and a 50% stop-out level.

Access to several different platforms

An advantage with Pepperstone is that you get access to four well-known and really popular trading platforms.

• The MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
• The MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
• cTrader
• TradingView (with the Razor account)

All of them are available in the web browser, as downloadable software for desktop and in the form of mobile apps (for both iOS and Android).

All of them also come with a wealth of tools and support for technical analysis, which is important to many forex traders.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

• Very popular among forex traders. So popular, that when the the MT5 was launched by the same company, a lot of forex traders refused to migrate to the new platform – and the MT4 is still going strong today.
• The special trading robots used on MT4 are called Expert Advisors (EAs). You can build your own on the platform or buy/rent Expert Advisors built by someone else. Expert Advisors are programmed using the MQL4 language.
• For technical analysis, there are 3 chart types with 9 time frames (1 minute to 1 month) and 30+ integrated technical indicators.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5)

• Comes from the same developer as the MT4. Was developed to handle a wider range of instruments than the MT4 and also comes with even more tools for technical analysis.
• 3 chart types with 21 time frames (1 minute to 1 month) and 38 integrated technical indicators.
• Access to deep market data.
• Multi-thread and multi-currency strategy backtesting
• You can use Expert Advisors (trading robots) programmed using the MQL5 language.

cTrader

• Excellent support for the creation of custom trading robots and custom indicators.
• Very popular among algorithmic traders.
• Single-chart, multi-chart and free-chart modes for the interface.
• 4 chart types
• Simultaneous order processing.

TradingView

This is another great resource for traders interested in technical analysis, and you can use it for one-click trading.

Examples of what you will get:

• 4 different speeds for market data replays
• 15+ chart types, e.g. Renko, Kagi and Point&Figure
• 100+ technical indicators
• 90+ drawing tools
• The opportunity to set up complex alerts and notifications

Over 100 additional tools are available for download into TradingView, and you can also use the Pine Script programming language to create your own indicators

Using Autochartist

With your Pepperstone account, you will get free access to the popular Autochartist which is great if you want to carry out technical analysis. Autochartist includes a lot of tools that can help you identify patterns and trends in market data and you will for instance get access to deep filtering tools and technical indicator notifications.

Automated Trading

Automated trading can be carried out on MT4, MT5 and cTrader.

Pepperstone is a strong proponent of automated trading and will give you free access to Capitalise.ai where you can build your own trading robots even if you have no programming experience. They can then be connected seamlessly with the MT4 trading platform and start working there for you. You log into the Capitalise.ai using the same credentials as for the MT4 platform, so you do not have to go through any new sign-up process.

More experienced traders will probably find the Capitalise.ai a bit lacking (it is great for beginners). If you are an experienced trader, my guess is you will prefer to use the cTrader Automated API to develop custom indicators and fx bots.

Copy Trading

Pepperstone has partnered with popular Copy Trading brands to facilitate copy trading for their clients. Pepperstone is great for copy trading and supports both Myfxbook, DupliTrade, and MetaTrader Signals.

If you have not done any copy trading before, I would recommend MetaTrader Signals, since it is not only easy to use but also fully integrated with and developed for the MetaTrader software.

Trading Hours

Trading hours vary depending on the instrument and underlying asset.

Pepperstone follows standard market opening times.

The broker uses GMT +3 server time (US daylight savings).

A majority of the fx pairs can be traded from one minute after midnight (00:01) to 23:59 GMT+3 Monday to Friday.

For more information: https://pepperstone.com/en-gb/trading/trading-hours/

The Active Trader program

The Active Trader program is where Pepperstone rewards high-volume traders with various perks to keep them happy and entice them to stay with Pepperstone. A high-volume trader can for instance get rebates, up to $3 per lot. Up to 30% spread reduction is also available, along with access to services such as premium customer support, free VPS and an Account Manager.

Information & Education

• Daily forex articles by Pepperstone’s analysts
• Economic events info
• Webinars, videos and training guides created with retail investors in mind. Available for different levels and labelled Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced, respectively.

Deposits and withdrawals

Fees

Pepperstone does not charge any deposit or withdrawal fees, so you do not have to worry about such fees eating your profit margin. This tend to be especially important to small-scale traders, where a mid-sized fixed deposit or withdrawal fee could make a noticeable impact over time.

Transaction methods

Pepperstone accepts various transaction method types, including debit/credit cards, bank transfers and PayPal.

A downside with Pepperstone is that many popular e-wallets, including Neteller and Skrill, is not accepted here.

Limits

For us small-scale traders, it is nice to know that Pepperstone has no lower limit for deposits.

Withdrawal request processing

You can expect withdrawals to take 1-3 business days, which is in line with the industry average.

Pepperstone customer support

Pepperstone offers 24/7 support, which I like a lot, since I want to be able to reach the support regardless of when I am trading. When a broker offers 24/7 trading, it just makes sense to also provide 24/7 support instead of trying to save money on this. Some issues really need to be resolved right away and not be allowed to stew until office hours.

English speaking support is available through phone, email and live chat. For other languages, the availability varies. Since I only use the English-speaking support, I can not vouch for the quality or accessibility regarding other languages.

Important: When you first enter the live chat, a chat robot will answer. In my experience, it can not resolve complicated issues. If you need to chat with a human, use the feature Request an agent. Most of the times I tried, I was connected to a human within a few minutes.

Telephone:

• 0035725030573 (EU)
• 08000465473 (UK)
• +44(800)0465473 (international)

Live chat:

On the bottom right-side of the Pepperstone site. This means you do not need to be logged into any of the trading platforms to reach the live chat, which I appreciate.

Email:

support@pepperstone.com

About Pepperstone

Pepperstone was established in 2010.

Pepperstone works through its subsidiaries in order to comply with local law and license requirements. It has offices in many different places, including Cyprus, London, Dubai, and Melbourne.

As of 2023, Pepperstone has around 400,000 registered customers.

Questions and answers

Is there a Pepperstone proprietary platform?

No, unlike many other brokers, Pepperstone does not have its own proprietary platform. Instead, you get access to the well-known third-party platforms MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and cTrader.

You also get access to the charting platform TradingView.

Is there a Pepperstone forex app?

Pepperstone has no proprietary trading platform and therefore no proprietary trading apps.

The third-party platforms MT4, M5 and cTrader all have trading apps for both iOS and Android.

The charting platform TradingView is also available in the form of apps for iOS and Android.

Does Pepperstone charge an inactivity fee?

No, they do not.

Can I get Virtual Private Server (VPS) access?

Yes, for a fee.

Two different services are available and both are suitable for super-fast algorithmic trading: ForexVPS and New York City Servers.

Certain customers get one or both for free under the Active Trader program.

Will I get a welcome bonus from Pepperstone?

No, there is no Pepperstone welcome bonus. This is now common practise among brokers regulated by strict countries such as the UK, Australia or Cyprus.

For me personally, this is not a minus, because welcome bonuses (especially the big ones) so often come with trading requirements that would be nearly impossible for me to complete reasonably fast with my small-scale trading, and I do not like having my account frozen. Traders who turn over big volumes and find it easy to clear trading requirements might feel differently about this.

Are there any other bonuses?

Yes, the refer-a-friend bonus and the various perks that come with the Active Trader program.

The refer-a-friend is 20 commission-free trades for forex and equity CFD:s. Conditions apply, including one that requires the new trader to make a first deposit of at least $1,000. This is quite a hurdle and many traders do not like to deposit that much when trying out a new broker.

Is scalping permitted?

Yes it is.

Is hedging permitted?

Yes it is.

Is netting permitted?

Yes it is.