When it comes to trading in South Africa, knowing the best ECN brokers in South Africa is imperative for an excellent trading experience. You should know the pros and cons of different brokers in South Africa and what benefits you can get from an ECN broker as a beginner.
With this guide, you will learn about the top successful ECN brokers in South Africa, their features, pros, and cons. But, before going further, let’s talk a little about what ECN brokers are and how they are helpful in the forex market.
Introduction about ECN broker
Electronic Communications Network is abbreviated as ECN. ECN brokers are also known as forex financial experts who assist the clients in gaining direct access to various participants in the forex market.
ECN brokers often consolidate quotes from multiple participants to offer tighter bids or ask spreads. A market trader, a bank, or a single trader is the most typical client of an ECN broker.
Essentially, ECN allows an investor to trade outside the traditional market hours. For a beginner, choosing a reliable ECN broker is a real blessing.
What are the characteristics of a reliable ECN broker?
When you contact an ECN broker, make sure you ask openly about their trading execution model. The safe and reliable broker will be transparent about their execution model and explain their execution policy.
Brokers may also offer true ECN accounts, which they openly discuss with new traders for a smooth trading experience.
Hybrid mode is a combination of ECN and STP that some brokers are offering. As a beginner trader, selecting a well-regulated ECN broker with a quick execution model with low fees is important.
List of best ECN brokers South Africa
Now without wasting any time, let’s dive into the discussion of the best ECN brokers in South Africa to pick a reliable and professional one:
1. AvaTrade
Top of our list is AvaTrade which facilitates more than 2,000,000 transactions monthly. Around 200,000 active traders are part of this ECN broker worldwide.
Started operating in 2006, AvaTrade is popularly known to be the most established and regulated platform in the market for an incredible trading experience. AvaTrade has low spreads, great customer service, and offers a variety of trading instruments.
The process of registering into AvaTrade is extremely quick and straightforward. The client support team is available via telephone, email, or live chat.
| Pros | Cons |
| Quick registration | High inactivity fees |
| Deposits and withdrawals are free | |
| Available with educational resources | |
| Various trading instruments | |
| Low spreads |
2. Tickmill
Tickmill is another top leading ECN broker in South Africa, popular for its competitive fees on its Pro account. This broker has a minimum deposit requirement of $100. Its lowest spread for the EUR/USD was 0.2 pips + $4 per Standard lot, making $2 per side.
The process of execution at Tickmill is extremely quick, with no re-quotes. Plus, they even provide negative balance protection on all trading accounts.
Tickmill does not charge any extra fees or commissions against any withdrawal or deposit if we talk about the funding process.
A trader can trade with more than 60 currency pairs you won’t find on any other broker platform. But on the other side, Tickmill is limited with other trading instruments, including 16 CFDs on the Stock Indices and CFDs on two metals.
| Pros | Cons |
| Lower forex fees | CFD trading instruments are limited |
| Quick account opening process | Only offer MT4 trading platform |
| Deposit and withdrawal is free |
3. Hotforex
On the 3rd spot, we have Hotforex, which is regulated by the Top-Tier regulators FSCA in South Africa, FCA in the UK, and CySEC in Cyprus and DFSA. For beginners, this broker platform is the safest option to consider for trading.
In addition, Hotforex has the lowest spread on all of its trading accounts. The average spread for the major pairs such as USD/EUR is 0.1 pips. This is quite low in comparison with other ECN brokers.
The 100% deposit bonus by Hotforex for the new traders is an incredible thing to imagine!
| Pros | Cons |
| Offers a demo account | Limited trading instruments |
| Minimum deposit | |
| 100% deposit bonus | |
| No fees on withdrawal and deposit |
4. IC Markets
ASIC and FSCA regulate IC Markets. This ECN broker is based on low trading fees. EUR/USD currency pair has 0.1 pips spread at an average of $7 commission per standard lot.
Plus, it does not charge any fees for funding, inactivity, or withdrawal. The fast and easy account opening process makes this platform to be the most demanding one among beginners.
IC Markets also offer its clients the market execution model and the current market price. However, they don’t offer negative balance protection, which is their major drawback! In addition, their slow live chat customer support service can be a bit disappointing for the new users.
| Pros | Cons |
| No feed on deposits and withdrawals | Lacks negative balance protection |
| Fast and easy account opening | Slow live chat support |
| Low forex fee | |
| Variety of trading instruments |
Comparison table of best ECN brokers in South Africa
| ECN broker | Regulation | Fees | Leverage | Minimum Deposit | Forex trading platforms |
| AvaTrade | BVI, FSCA, ASIC | Zero fees | 1:400 | $100 | MT4, MT5, WebTrader |
| Tickmill | FCA (UK), ASIC | Pro-Account – Spread from 0.2 pips + $4 commission per standard lot | up to 1:500 | $100 | MT4 for web, mobile devices, |
| Hotforex | FSCA (South Africa), FCA, CySEC | Zero Account – Commission of $6 per lot + spread from 0 pips | up to 1:1000 | $200 (for Zero account) | Metatrader 4, MT5 |
| IC Markets | ASIC, CySEC | Raw Spread Metatrader – Commission of $7 per lot + spread from 0 pips | up to 1:500 | $200 | MT4, MT5 & cTrader |
Bottom line
We hope that with the list mentioned above of the best ECN brokers in South Africa, you will pick the efficient and reliable one to start trading with.
How much success you achieve in a trading market in terms of profit or loss will be dependent on the type of broker platform you are associated with. So do some research on each trading platform and see what suits your trading requirements.