Best Forex Brokers in Philippines

Why choose to trade Forex in the Philippines?

Investing in the Philippines has become popular among investors. This can be attributed to the fact that the Philippines is seen as one of the most promising developing countries in Asia. The blossoming economy and the opportunity it presented acted as a charm to different types of investors and this saw the Forex brokerage firms bringing their services to the Philippines market. In addition to this, the country has also put in place regulations that guide Forex trading while also protecting investors and their investments in the Forex market.

Role of the BSP in Forex Trading in the Philippines

The Forex brokerage firms in the Philippines are regulated by the BSP. The BSP, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, is the central bank of the Philippines that is tasked with, among other things, ensuring fair market practices and also ensure there is transparency in the market.

BSP aims to protect investors' money and to check the Forex brokerage firms, and for this reason, the bank came up with stringent laws that the brokerage firms have to adhere to. The rules are wide and not only affect the brokerage firms, but they also affect prospective investors. How do they affect investors? The rules are so wide that they also cover the subject of investment limitation. The rules give guidelines on who can invest and also highlights those that are not eligible to invest in FX trading. The regulations also cover the activity of Forex trading. By the activity of Forex trading, we are talking about the process of trading which includes the amount to be traded and the requisite factors that have to be present for the trade to be concluded.

 The approach that is taken by the bank to regulate the FX brokerage firm is slightly different but not completely foreign. It is important to take note of the fact that these rules were not created solely for the brokerage firms, they were created to regulate and control all the foreign exchange transactions. There are several other people and organizations in the Philippines that deal with FX trading including banks. Forex brokerage firms also fall under that category and thus the rules also apply to them.

BSP insists on a policy where the Forex brokerage firms get to know their customers. This should not be taken in the literal sense. The policy is aimed at ensuring that the broker insists on getting the information on their customers and this ensures the rate of money laundering in the country is at zero. For this reason, investors who wish to trade Forex in the Philippines should be aware of the fact that they are mandated to reveal information about themselves and this may include documentation to prove their identity. The information may be demanded from you in either of these two instances depending on the firm you chose to use;

1. When you are on the verge of making a trade
2. After you have completed the trades and now you wish to take some of the proceeds from the account.

It is therefore advisable for anyone who wishes to trade Forex in the Philippines to inquire about the verification process and to know the policy of the firm regarding the process of verification.

How do you choose a Forex broker in the Philippines

Developing countries like the Philippines see a large number of investors coming into the country. Developing economies provide a haven for investors and this is why it is important to know how you get to choose a Forex broker in the Philippines.

Another important reason for this is the fact that the Philippines has seen a rise in the number of brokerage firms, and this increase has also brought with it several scams and scam artists who wish to exploit unknowing investors.

So what do you look for when choosing a Forex broker in the Philippines?

1. Look at the regulators, is the firm regulated by the official regulator(BSP)?
2. How do you get to trade with the broker? What trading platforms are offered by the broker
3. What charges do you have to pay the broker?
4. How are the trading accounts, can you find one that is suitable for you?
5. Look at the other important services like customer care services.

Regulation of Philippines Forex firms.

In the past, brokers were free to open their companies in any country and offer their services as long as they had the resources. However, this has changed and the Forex trading activity is highly regulated. For this reason, any Forex firm that wishes to offer their services in a certain country, they have to first adhere to the rules and regulations of the said country. At this time we are in, no single serious investor will risk investing their money through an unregulated broker. The reason is, regulation ensures investor protection as they are drafted to curb unfair practices by FX brokers.

In the case of the Philippines, the body tasked with regulating the Forex trading market is the BSP. BSP being the central bank of the Philippines ensures that the Forex market;

1. Is free from technical inconveniences
2. Adheres to the rules of information disclosure (transparency)
3. Is free from monopolistic tendencies(the market is competitive)

the bank is there to ensure that the rules they have set are adhered to by the various players in the market. This does not mean that the bank is directly involved in the process,  the bank offers the players the chance to trade freely while looking for any malpractices which they punish. Some of the activities the bank seeks to curb are;

1. Fake brokerage firms that want to embezzle unknowing customers
2. Money laundering activities
3. The tampering of the fair market practices by offering misleading information on the prices. (price manipulation)

The trading platforms offered

After you have confirmed that the broker is regulated, you can now go further and try examining the platform that has been offered by the trader. Why is looking at the type of platform important? Above all other factors, including how good you are at trading, the platform is your key partner. This is because you will, as a Forex broker, find yourself interacting with the trading platform more because that is where you will make all your trades. If the platform is too complicated, then you will find it hard to cope and eventually, you might make a mistake that will cost you simply because you do not have a good understanding of the platform to be able to help you correct the mistake.

What are the characteristics of an ideal trading platform in the Philippines?

1. The platform should be easily understandable to you – this means that you should be able to know all the commands, buttons, and functions of every button.
2. The platform should have easily understandable and well-drawn charts – in FX trading, the charts are a very important aspect. If the platform offers you well crafted and easily readable and accessible charts, you will be able to go forth with the process of making trade decisions smoothly.
3. The platform should be encouraging to the users – by encouraging we are talking about giving traders the option of emulating other traders who are better off in trading than they are.

Look at the commissions and the spreads.

Some brokers charge commissions while some other brokers use spreads to make money. How do the brokerage firms make money through spreads? First of all, a spread is the difference between the initial ask price and the subsequent bid price of a currency pair that is either fixed or variable. Let us take an example of a EUR/USD with a spread of 1.2365-1.2369. the currency pair can be said to have a four-pip spread. This means that when a prospective investor buys at 1.2369, the currency has already lost four pips of value because it could only be sold at 1.2365 at that particular moment. Therefore, it is clear that the wider the spread gets the fewer the profits one can make. Commissions are however charged at a certain percentage of the spread. 

Look at the different account types on offer.

Before you decide to use a certain broker, you also have to look at the different account types offered by the different brokers. Looking at the type of account offered by the brokers will help you make a decision based on the amount of capital you want to use as your first investment. Different brokerage firms offer different accounts with different restrictions on the amount of capital required to operate such an account. Let us look at Some examples of accounts offered by different brokers.

Micro account

A micro account is an account that requires very minimal capital requirements. However, this means that your trading activity is capped and you can only trade micro-lots.

Mini account

a mini account can also be opened with an amount of $100 or more. It has a fairly higher trade lot than the micro account.

Standard account

this account demands more starting capital and it offers a larger trading lot(as high as $100,000).

Look at the customer services offered.

An investor in FX trading is an FX brokerage firm’s customer. For this reason, the customer care services offered by the F brokerage firm should be top-notch. So, when looking for a Forex broker in the Philippines, go to their customer service option and try to investigate how they treat their customers, how fast they reply, and if they offer useful information regarding your queries. It will be unfortunate if you decide to choose a broker and you eventually find out that their customer care services are very poor as it might get costly for you.

Top-rated Forex brokers in the Philippines.

Here is a list of Forex brokers operating n the Philippines and their different characteristics.

FXTM (Forex Time)

this is a Forex brokerage firm that was started back in the year 2011. It has several advantages including

1. A wide scope of investment opportunities
2. They have very good trading platforms with advanced technological features
3. They offer education to their customers. This, in turn, helps sharpen their customer's trading prowess.
4. The firm has several clients from all around the world thus meaning they are well regulated. This is because most countries prefer to regulate FX brokers and thus its presence in those countries suggests that it is well regulated

Ava Trade

Ava trade was started in the year 2006 with its headquarters being in Ireland. Some of the advantages associated with Ava Trade are;

1. It offers several commodities to be traded
2. It has a large global clientèle meaning it is highly regulated.
3. It has several offices in major cities all around the world including Africa.

eToro

This is a highly user-friendly trading platform that was established in the year 2006. some of its features include;

1. A copy trading feature/social trading
2. Different commodities to trade in