Pepperstone Review

Broker	Pepperstone
Website URL	www.pepperstone.com
Founded	2010
Headquarters	Level 16, Tower One, 727 Collins Street Melbourne, VIC Australia 3008
Support Number	1300 033 375
Support Types	Phone, email: [email protected], 24/5 live chat
Languages	English, Chinese
Trading Platform	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader
Minimum 1st Deposit	$200
Minimum Account Size	$1
Minimum Trade Amount	$1
Maximum Trade Amount	None
Bonus	Active Trader program rebates paid daily
Payout	Within 2 working days
Leverage	1:1 up to 500:1
Spread	from as low as 0.1 pips, depending on account type
Free Demo Account	Open Demo
Regulated
Regulation	Pepperstone Group Limited , ACN 147 055 703 , AFSL No.414530
Fees
Fee Info	AUD$7 per 100k traded on Razor ECN
Commissions
Commission Info	AUD$7 per 100k traded on Razor ECN
Account Types	Standard, Razor true ECN
Deposit Methods	Visa, Mastercard, POli, Bank transfer, BPay, Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, Union Pay
Withdrawal Methods	Visa, Mastercard, POli, Bank transfer, BPay, Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, Union Pay
Number of Assets	1000+
Types of Assets	forex, index CFDs, share CFDs, commodities, cryptocurrencies
Trading Currency	EUR/USD, USD/CAD, EUR/GPB, GBP/USD, EUR/CAD, NZD/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF, AUD/USD, EUR/JPY, AUD/CAD, AUD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF
Account Currency	EUR, USD, GBP, AUD, CHF, NZD, JPY, SGD, CAD and HKD.
US Traders Allowed
Mobile Trading
Tablet Trading
Overall Score	8.7

Full Review

Pepperstone is officially the best Australian true ECN broker.

Founded in 2010, Pepperstone is the fastest growing Australian forex broker. The broker offers direct fx trading on liquidity markets with no dealing desk which results in:

– Super fast exection order
– Very low spreads
– No Slippage

Other important pros of this Australian forex broker are:

– Negative balance protection
– MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 compatible
– 24/5 Customer service

Why does Pepperstone have the fastest order execution speed?

As true ECN broker Pepperstone offers forex traders to directly trade forex using interbanking systems. No dealer desk intervention causes ultra fast order placement. There are two more reasons why this broker has up to 12 times faster execution speeds:

Optic connection between Australia and Wall Street
Pepperstone uses an optic glass fibre network between Sydney and it’s equinox servers in New York. This ensures traders that they don’t have to wait to place orders and that these orders can be executed at lightning fast speed.

MetaTrader Master Server Setup
Pepperstone has a partnership with Equinox, one of the most important companies enlisted on the NASDAQ. Equinox has servers close to Wall Street and allows forex traders to use their low latency networks to exchange data with strategic partners in the neighbourhood. In total, the Equinox NY4 Facility connects with 60+ exchanges, 400+ buy/sell companies and 150+ financial service providers.

Pepperstone Spreads and other Fees

Most Australian forex brokers including Pepperstone advertise their lowest spreads. This is what the lowest a currency spread has been over time which for Pepperstone are:

EUR/USD = 0.0 pips
AUD / USD = 0.1 pips
USD/JPY = 0.2 pips
GPB/USD = 0.2 pips
EUR/GBP = 0.3 pips

Pepperstone Account Types

There are two account types available on Pepperstone, Standard and Razor.

Standard Account
Standard accounts are not charged commission, just spread starting at 1.0 pips. These forex accounts come with negative balance protection to protect forex traders from any unwanted losses.

Razor Account
This true ECN broker account costs AUD$7 per 100k round traded and this is of course the most popular account type available at Pepperstone. In the table below you can compare the Razor account with the Standard account and see which one suits you the best.

	Razor	Standard
Institutional Grade Spreads	Yes (with no markups)	Yes
Average EUR/USD spread	0.0 - 0.3 pips	1.0 - 1.3 pips
Commission*	AUD$7 round turn 100k traded	$0
Rollover Swaps	Refer to your trading platform for market rates	Refer to your trading platform for market rates
Best for	Scalpers and algorithmic traders	New traders

Pepperstone tries to keep it’s prices even lower using it’s Price Improvement Technology. This technology works in volatile markets when big price movements occur. When u place a forex or CFD transaction or order on the MT4, MT5 or cTrader platform, you can execute this trade for the most favorable price the system discovers. The system then places the order against the best price and without requotes.

Pepperstone Trading Platform

The Pepperstone trading platform offers Australian forex traders the most features and lowest spreads. In the table below you can compare Pepperstone with other popular Australian forex brokers.

Pepperstone offers it’s client trading on both MetaTrader and cTrader.

MetaTrader

– Worlds most popular forex trading platform
– Easy to use interface and order management tools
– Real-Time charts, live quotes and technical and fundamental analysis

cTrader
– Direct access to interbanking liquidity and algorithmic trading compatible by the use of fx trading systems like scripts and Expert Advisors
– User interface is fully customizable
– Extensive back testing possibilities

Leverage and Margin Trading on Pepperstone

Pepperstone offers leverage from 1:1 up to 500:1. This is one of the higher leverages brokers offer as only a handful other brokers offer 500:1 or higher leverage trading.

What does 500:1 leverage actually mean?

500:1 Leverage means that for every Dollar you deposit on your online Pepperstone account, you can trade for $500. So, if you deposited the minimum of $200, you could trade for $100,000 on the forex markets ($200 x 500).

Lets buy a forex pair with this $100,000. This currency pair fictively goes up 0.25% in value, so we make $100,000 * 0.0025 = $250 profit. This would mean we already more than doubled our investment with a single trade. On the other side, if the forex pair went in the other direction, we would lose our entire balance. Overall, a high leverage means that you’re allowed to take more risk but it’s crucial that you understand the inner workings of leverage before you trade the forex markets with maximum leverage.

Pepperstone Broker Reviews

On other forex broker review websites we found mostly positive Pepperstone reviews. Forex Peace Army (one of the few popular broker review sites) rates Pepperstone Australia a 3/5 stars from 127 reviews (at the time of writing this review). The most important cons that forex traders talk about on forums are trading exotic forex pairs with Pepperstone, sometimes bad customer service and problems withdrawing money from time to time. Positive Pepperstone user broker reviews mostly talked about how fast the VPS is (<5ms), fast deposits, the ease of opening an account and the trading platform stability. Overall the customer reviews are quite positive.

Is Pepperstone a Reliable Broker?

In contrary with most other forex brokers, Pepperstone is based in Australia (Colins Street, Melbourne) and the company is being managed by a team with a lot of experience in forex trading. In March 2016 Champ was announced as strategic investor in the brokerage firm. The Melbourne Pepperstone firm is founded in 2010 and the company has ever since be licensed and regulated by the ASIC under Australian Financial Services License 414530. This means they have to comply with strict capital requirements, the training of staff members and comply with risk management processes. Also their book keeping is being checked regularly. According to the ASIC, Pepperstone segregated it’s clients funds at a tier 1 bank, in this case being the National Australia Bank.

Depositing and Withdrawing Money from Pepperstone

Traders can view forex trading strategies on the Pepperstone YouTube channel. Also there is the Pepperstone resource center. From time to time the Melbourne Pepperstone office organises webinars in which different trading methods are being explained to forex traders.

To gain access to the educational material you have to do a first minimimum deposit of at least $200 or more on a Razor ECN broker account or the Standard Pepperstone account. You can deposit and withdraw money using a bank wire transfer, Bpay, credit card and/or Paypal.

Pepperstone Review Conclusion

Pepperstone has built up a good name as a reliable broker in Australia and it’s platform has won many prizes and enjoys a lot positive reviews on the internet. This is likely due to their extremely low spreads on their Razor ECN broker account. Also, they offer the fastest order execution speeds for Australian forex traders using a optic fibre connection with their Equinox servers on Wall Street. The maximum leverage at Pepperstone is 500:1, which is higher than other brokers offer. Pepperstone offers enough volume to have a market share in the international forex market and can be seen as an innovator in the sector. An alternative to Pepperstone is IC Markets, which is also one of the best Australian brokers.