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Best Scalping Brokers

Written By

James Barra

Written By

James Barra

James is an investment writer with a background in financial services. As a former management consultant, he has worked on major operational transformation programmes at prominent European banks. James authors, edits and fact-checks content for a series of investing websites.

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Edited By

Jemma Grist

Edited By

Jemma Grist

Jemma is a writer, editor and fact-checker focused on retail trading and investing. Jemma brings a unique perspective to the forex, stock, and cryptocurrency markets and works across several investment websites as a researcher and broker analyst.

» Jemma Grist Profile Page

Fact Checked By

Tobias Robinson

Fact Checked By

Tobias Robinson

Tobias is a partner at DayTrading.com, director of a UK limited company and active trader. He has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry and contributed via CySec to the regulatory response to digital options and CFD trading in Europe. Toby’s expertise and dedication to financial education make him a trusted voice in the industry, including a BBC investigation into digital options.

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Updated

Jun 27, 2024

Scalping is a popular trading strategy that requires time and effort, but it also needs a good broker with fast order executions, low fees, high leverage, and reliable software. Fortunately, our team have done the hard work for you – evaluating and reviewing dozens of platforms to find the best scalping brokers.

List Of Best Brokers For Scalping 2024

These are the top 5 scalping brokers based on our tests:

1. Pepperstone: Best Overall Broker For Scalping
2. IC Markets: Best For Trading Software
3. Skilling: Best For Execution Speeds
4. FXTM: Best For High Leverage
5. FOREX.com: Best For US Traders

Comparison of Top 5 Scalping Brokers

Pepperstone - Best Overall Broker For Scalping

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Review

Pepperstone is an award-winning broker with more than 400,000 clients and an excellent reputation. The forex and CFD broker is regulated by trusted financial bodies, including the FCA, ASIC, CySEC and DFSA.

Pepperstone will serve both beginners and experienced scalpers with no minimum deposit, industry-leading platforms and 24/7 customer support.

Why We Chose It

We recommend Pepperstone for scalping for several reasons:

• The Razor account offers competitive pricing for scalpers with spreads from 0.0 pips and a $7 commission per lot or $6 on cTrader
• High-volume scalpers can reduce their costs through the Active Trader scheme
• You can scalp on the MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and cTrader platforms
• High leverage up to 1:500 is available depending on your location
• The broker offers very fast execution speeds of around 30ms
• Over 1,200 instruments are available including forex

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IC Markets - Best For Trading Software

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Review

IC Markets is a hugely respected broker with more than 180,000 clients, very competitive pricing and reliable software. The brokerage is authorized by several respected regulators, including the ASIC, CySEC and FSA.

IC Markets offers flexible accounts to suit different needs, with an accessible minimum deposit of $200. The broker also accepts a range of fee-free and near-instant payment methods, so you can get started quickly.

Why We Chose It

We suggest choosing IC Markets for scalping due to multiple factors:

• Scalping strategies and automated systems can be deployed on the MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader platforms
• The Raw account offers some of the best conditions for scalpers with tight spreads from 0.0 pips alongside a low $7 commission per lot, which you can further reduce to $6 on cTrader
• Scalpers can access leverage up to 1:500 to increase their buying power and returns
• IC Markets offers faster than average execution speeds of around 40ms
• Over 2,250 instruments are available including forex

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Skilling - Best For Execution Speeds

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Review

Skilling is a Cyprus-based multi-asset broker with accessible conditions and various industry awards. The company is regulated by the CySEC and FSA.

Skilling offers a competitive environment with beginner-friendly platforms, transparent fees and a fast sign-up process.

Why We Chose It

We picked Skilling as one of the best scalping brokers for several reasons:

• The broker offers some of the fastest execution speeds we have seen, coming in at 15ms
• The Premium account is well suited to scalping with spreads from 0.1 pips and a $7 commission per lot
• You can scalp trade on the powerful MetaTrader 4 and cTrader platforms
• High leverage rates up to 1:500 are available
• Over 1,000 instruments are available including forex

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FTXM - Best For High Leverage

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Review

FXTM is a popular global broker with over 4 million registered accounts and 25+ awards. The brokerage is regulated by the FCA, CySEC, FSCA, and FSC.

FXTM offers market-leading platforms, a $50 minimum investment, and very high leverage.

Why We Chose It

Our experts found several things that make FXTM good for scalping:

• The ECN account allows scalping and offers very competitive pricing with tight spreads from 0.0 pips and a $4 commission per lot
• You can access high leverage up to 1:2000 – more than any other broker we evaluated
• You can trade on the reliable MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms
• The broker offers fast execution speeds of around 80ms
• Over 1,000 instruments are available including forex

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Forex.com - Best For US Traders

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Review

Forex.com is a top-rated broker with over 20 years experience and more than 1 million clients. The broker is heavily regulated, holding licenses with the NFA, CFTC, FCA, CySEC, CIMA, CIRO, and SFC.

Forex.com offers a choice of high-quality software, very low fees and a selection of convenient deposit options.

Why We Chose It

We consider Forex.com the best scalping broker in the US due to several factors:

• The Raw Pricing account is a great option for scalpers with spreads from 0.0 pips and a $7 commission
• The Active Trader program also offers discounts for high-volume traders with up to 15% off costs
• You can trade on the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms
• Forex.com offers very fast execution speeds of around 30ms
• Over 4,500 instruments are available including forex

Visit FOREX.com

How To Find The Best Broker For Scalping

There are several factors our team considered to find the best scalping brokers:

Execution Speed

We consider order execution speed and quality highly important while scalping since this style of trading relies on razor-thin margins where a millisecond can make a difference.

Our experts consider any execution speed below 100ms as fast, however some of our top scalping brokers have ultra-fast execution speeds of <30ms. 

Leverage

High leverage provides more buying power and potential returns, making it an important consideration for scalpers. Several regulators restrict leverage to 1:30 for retail traders, however some firms offer higher rates for professional traders or to clients registered through their offshore entities.

Importantly, we only recommend that experienced traders use high leverage, as it can magnify losses and increase the risks. It is also worth noting that offshore brokers tend to offer fewer legal safeguards.

Execution Model

Brokers generally use either dealing-desk (DD) or no-dealing-desk (NDD) models to process orders.

• Dealing desk brokers provide the liquidity themselves, taking the counterparty position in trades. This is called market making and means you are effectively trading against your broker. Although many trustworthy brokers use this model, we see it as suboptimal for scalping.
• No-dealing desk brokers provide clients with direct market access to external liquidity providers such as banks and hedge funds. Often, they use electronic communication networks (ECNs) with straight-through processing (STP) to connect investors with suitable counterparties and to complete trades. The benefit of this model is that there are many potential counterparties, allowing clients to access competitive bid and ask prices.

Overall, brokers with NDD accounts are generally more transparent and we see them as the best choice for scalpers.

Fees

Brokers often give clients a choice of two pricing models, either charging no commission and making their money from a wider floating spread, or charging a flat commission and offering tighter spreads:

• Floating spreads with a markup means there is a minimum spread that a certain asset will typically have. Often, this can be anywhere from 0.6 pips to 1 pip or more. While these can still be low, they make it difficult to achieve a profitable scalping strategy as there needs to be a sufficiently large price swing in a short space of time to compensate for the markup.
• Commission-based pricing models often remove this markup entirely and instead, charge a flat fee. The key benefit here is that the spreads will be as low as possible, making it possible to profit from smaller price swings. Traders also have more certainty – they know what costs to expect upfront.

We usually recommend brokers with a commission-based pricing model for scalpers as they offer tighter spreads, making it easier to execute a strategy based on such fine margins.

Platforms

The platform is where you carry out analysis, plan and execute trades, and for us, this is one of the key factors behind successfully implementing scalping strategies.

The best platforms for scalpers are powerful enough to carry out trades quickly and support automated trading. MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 are two of the world’s leading platforms, famous for their reliability, speed, and support for Expert Advisors (EAs).

Regulatory Credentials

We consider safety the single most important aspect of online investing, so we favor scalping brokers that are regulated by reputable financial bodies.

Regulated brokers can generally be trusted to protect clients’ funds, provide fair terms and live up to advertised standards of execution. This is especially important with strategies like scalping, where a millisecond or a fraction of a pip can make the difference between profit and loss.

Our team always crosscheck brokers’ credentials against the respective regulator’s database to confirm their licenses are valid. We also look for any reports of scams or security breaches. 

Methodology

Choosing the best broker is not an easy process, but when it comes to scalping it can be the difference between profit and loss.

To find the best scalping brokers, we evaluated and reviewed dozens of brokers, focussing on their order execution speed, spreads and commissions, maximum leverage, platforms, account conditions, and regulatory status.

We also considered both quantitive metrics and qualitative insights gathered during the testing process. This allowed us to identify the 5 brokers that are best for this specialized strategy.

FAQ

Which Is The Best Scalping Broker?

Pepperstone is the best broker for scalping. It offers very fast execution speeds of ~30ms, high leverage up to 1:500, spreads from 0.0 pips with a low commission, access to MT4, MT5 and cTrader, plus a $0 minimum deposit.

Runners up in our list of best scalping brokers are IC Markets, Skilling, FXTM, and FOREX.com.

Which Is The Best Platform For Scalping?

MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 are the most popular platforms for scalping. They are offered by many of the top brokers and offer fast processing, reliable order management and support for automated trading.

cTrader is also a good platform for scalping with sophisticated tools, advanced charts and a modern design.