Pepperstone Review 2020

Pepperstone is one of Australia leading forex and CFD brokers, and was established in 2010. The brokerage firm was founded by two individuals by the name of Owen Kerr and Joe Davenport. Pepperstone’s head office is located in Melbourne, Australia. It also maintains an office in London in order to better serve the needs of its European based clients. Pepperstone is regulated by two of the top tiered regulatory bodies in the world, the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Pepperstone specializes in offering online trading services for spot forex and CFDs through a selection of advanced trading platforms. The broker draws its appeal from the fact that it is able to meet the differing needs of traders of different skill levels. Apart from being able to serve the needs of various categories of traders, Pepperstone also cater to institutional investors. Despite being only operational for a less than a decade, Pepperstone has been considered as one of the more successful forex brokers in the industry by many key players. This is hardly surprising as it has always been the broker’s aim to leverage technology, superior services and competitive spreads as the primary driver of growth for the company.a

Pepperstone claims that it offer some of the best trading conditions in the online forex trading industry. The broker through its industry networking has been able to offer its clients deep liquidity and raw spreads as low as zero pips on currency pairs. For CFDs, the spreads can be as low as 0.1 pips and one USD dollar per point. The following table shows the minimum and average spreads which traders at Pepperstone can expect from the broker:

For CFDs trading, below are the commission charges for traders trading on the MetaTrader platforms:

* The figures in the tables above are taken directly from Pepperstone’s website at the time of  writing this review.

Pepperstone has on offer 3 main types of trading platforms for its traders to choose from, the MetaTrader 4 (MT4), the MetaTrader 5 (MT5) and the cTrader platforms.

MetaTrader 4 Platform

The MT4 trading platform is considered to be the most popular forex trading platform in the industry. The platform supports enhanced charts, advanced tools, expert advisors and MQL scripting. These advanced features make the trading platform suitable not just for beginner traders but also advanced traders. Other key features of the MT4 platform include the following:

• 80+ built in Technical indicators
• Ability to support various order types
• Customizable user interface in different languages
• Live news feeds
• Multiple timeframes for the charts

MetaTrader 5 Platform

The MT5 platform is built on the success of its predecessor, the MT4 platform. It comes with updated trading abilities such as faster trade processing times and gives its user the ability to hedge their trading positions. In short, the MT5 comes with more trading tools to take traders to the next level. Some of the main features of the MT5 platform include:

• Built in Economic Calendar
• Large array of technical indicators
• Support 21 different time frames
• Support 3rd party tools such as Autochartist and Smart Trader Tools

Both the MT4 and MT5 are available in various versions. The MT4 client software is avialabe for both windows and Mac based computer. It also comes as a WebTrader where traders can just access the platform directly using just a web browser. As for the MT5 platform, it is currently only available for Windows based computers.

In addition to the MetaTrader platforms, Pepperstone has also made available the cTrader. This is a relatively new platform that has started to gain popularity among traders. The platform is highly customizable and is extremely user friendly. It also has an advanced management feature to help traders manage their positions more efficiently. Like the MT4 platform, the cTrader is also available as a WebTrader. What the cTrader has to offer include the following features:

• Back Testing Ability
• Level II Prices
• Separable Charts
• Support for Automated Trading

For traders wanting to trade the markets with their smartphones, Pepperstome has provided them with the MT4 and cTrader mobile trading apps. The apps for these platforms can be downloaded from Google PlayStore and Apple App Store.

Pepperstone offer a choice of 4 different types of trading accounts. These accounts consist of the following:

Pepperstone Standard Account

• Competitive liquidity
• Interbank spreads from 1.0 pips
• No Commission
• No minimum deposit requirement

Pepperstone Razor Account

• Deep Interbank Liquidity
• EAs Allowed
• Hedging Allowed
• Leverage available up to 500:1
• Min Account Opening Balance $200 AUD or equivalent
• Raw Spread
• Scalping Allowed

Pepperstone Swap-Free Account

• EAs Allowed
• Hedging Allowed
• Interest free
• Min Account Opening Balance $200USD or equivalent
• Scalping Allowed

Pepperstone Active Traders Account

• Advanced Insights and Reports
• Cash rebates
• Priority Client Support
• Qantas Frequent Flyer Program
• VPS Hosting

Funding methods at Pepperstone comprises of:

• Bank Wire
• Bpay
• Credit/Debit cards
• Fasapay
• Local Bank Deposit
• Neteller
• PayPal
• POLI
• Skrill
• Union Pay

Withdrawal requests that are submitted by traders before 21:00 GMT are processed within the same business day. Funds are usually transferred back to the trader using the same method that was initially used to make a deposit. For bank wire transfer, the process normally takes 3 to 5 business days to complete. Take note that Pepperstone charges a fee of $20 for bank withdrawals. In addition, payment processors such as Paypal and Skrill also charge a fee when you make a withdrawal through them.

Customer support services at Pepperstone are through email, fax, live chat and the telephone. The good news is the phone support service is available on a 24 hours basis throughout the entire trading week. Traders in cities such as Bangkok, Dallas, Melbourne and London have the added benefit of having localized support since the broker maintains a representative office in those cities.

Given the fact that Pepperstone is regulated by ASIC and the FCA, Pepperstone’s clients can be assured that they are dealing with a legitimate broker. It has been almost a decade since Pepperstone first began operations. During those periods, the broker has proven its ability to look after the interest of its clients. A good example is the way the broker handled the situation when the Swiss Franc was unpegged from the euro in 2015. Massive losses were avoided by the quick action of the broker. The bottom line is the fact that Pepperstone is a reliable and reputable broker. It offers its traders quality services in a secured environment for its traders.