Our Review Process for FP Markets in Australia

One standard-lot NZD/USD round turn on the Raw account costs about USD 6 in commission plus a spread that starts at 0.0 pips, and that single number is where every FP Markets review we publish begins. If the cost line does not survive contact with a real ticket, nothing else on the page matters.

For Australian traders the picture has an extra layer: client activity here sits under the Australian subsidiary, First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd, regulated by ASIC. Our process therefore checks two things at once, the broker as a global brand and the local entity that actually holds your money.

What Our Review Process Checks

We work in a fixed order, cheapest thing to verify first and hardest thing to fake first.

The order is deliberate. A broker can talk about "tight spreads" indefinitely, but a spread claim collapses the moment you price an actual ticket during the London session. Costs first, marketing last.

Pricing Out One Real Trade

A cost review does not work by reading a fee page. We open the terminal, pick a liquid pair, and watch the spread through a full session.

On the Standard account the model is simple: the spread carries the cost, no separate commission, typically around 1.0 to 1.2 pips on NZD/USD. On the Raw account the spread starts at 0.0 pips and you pay roughly USD 3 per side, so about USD 6 per round-turn lot.

Two costs sit outside both tables and we always test them separately: swaps on positions held overnight, and any financing charge on leveraged positions. These are not on the headline pricing page.

How We Verify the ASIC Side

Australian clients are served by First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd, the local subsidiary regulated by ASIC, and the Australia-facing site presents itself as FP Markets Australia out of Level 5, Exchange House, 10 Bridge Street, Sydney. ASIC is a tier 1 regulator, and the entity holding AU client money is the one we check against the register.

The practical consequence is leverage. ASIC's CFD intervention order caps retail leverage at 30:1 on major forex pairs, 20:1 on minor pairs, gold and major indices, 10:1 on other commodities and minor indices, 5:1 on shares, and 2:1 on crypto. The Australia-facing material lists maximum leverage of 1:500 for forex, which is the global figure, not the local retail cap.

Australian clients also get negative balance protection and margin close-out rules under the same intervention order, plus a ban on inducements like trading credits and rebates. The trade-off is lower leverage and no bonus-style promotions, which we confirm each time rather than assume.

Platforms, Instruments and the AU Detail

The platform list for Australia includes MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView, WebTrader, MT5 Mobile Trader and Iress. Iress is Australia-only, so if you see it promoted to a global audience, that is a red flag on the source, not the broker.

Instrument access is broad, with 10,000+ instruments across six asset classes, 70+ currency pairs, CFDs, and ASX plus international share trading. For an Australian reader the ASX share access is the part that changes the calculus, because it means one account can hold a CFD position and a domestic equity position without a second login.

Funding in AUD removes the conversion drag that eats into returns for anyone depositing in a foreign currency, and AUD 100 is a low enough entry point to test execution with real money before committing capital.

Where FP Markets Draws Clear Lines

Three things we flag honestly, and none of them is a reason to walk away.

First, the regulatory picture. Retail CFD trading is permitted in Australia but tightly regulated, and the ASIC rules apply to retail clients specifically. Trading through the Australian entity brings strong protection and capped leverage. That is the trade-off, not a problem.

Second, cost transparency on swaps and financing. Spread and commission are easy to find. Overnight financing is not, and it varies by instrument, direction and account type. If you hold positions for days rather than hours, model the swap before you size the trade, not after.

Third, promotions. We found no verified Australia-specific promotional offer at review, and ASIC's inducement ban means the deposit-bonus style offers that offshore brokers advertise do not apply here.

If cost control is your priority and you want the tightest possible all-in figure, we also keep a comparison of how FP Markets stacks up against other internationally regulated brokers on commission, swap rates and execution speed.

Built for Australian CFD Traders

FP Markets is a Sydney-based broker founded in 2005, and the Australian operation runs under a tier 1 regulator with AUD funding, a low minimum deposit and a cost structure you can model. The weaknesses are the ones you would expect from any ASIC-regulated CFD issuer: capped leverage, no inducements, and swaps that take effort to price. That is the trade-off between protection and flexibility, and you should pick your side of it deliberately.

Choose it when:

You are an Australian trader who wants ASIC oversight, AUD funding and a low AUD 100 entry, and you plan to trade actively enough that the Raw account's USD 6 round-turn commission beats the wider Standard spread. The MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView stack covers most workflows, and the ASX share access is an advantage if you want equities and CFDs in one place.

Reconsider when:

You hold positions for weeks and your real cost is swaps rather than spreads, in which case compare overnight financing across several brokers before opening anything. You should also look harder at alternatives if you want leverage above the ASIC retail caps, since that is a structural limit of the local entity rather than a broker weakness, and it cannot be negotiated away. In both cases the fix is comparison, not avoidance.