FP Markets SEA review

Want our global review instead? Read it here.

FP Markets pitches itself as a well-regulated, low-cost CFD broker with more than 10,000 instruments. Founded in Sydney in 2005, it has picked up 80+ industry awards and sits among the better-known names for forex and CFDs.

For South East Asian traders, the story needs a closer look. You’ll get competitive raw spreads from 0.0 pips, four trading platforms and SGD currency pairs. You’ll also fall under the Seychelles FSA (Financial Services Authority), not ASIC or CySEC, which means higher leverage but weaker statutory protection. And you won’t get real stocks, bonds or ETFs. Only CFDs (contracts for difference).

Here’s what you need to know before opening an account.

Pros and cons

Who FP Markets is for (and who should skip it)

Fees

FP Markets has two main account types that cover most SEA traders. Typical spreads are published here.

Which account fits you?

• Standard: better for swing traders holding positions for days. No commission, wider spreads.
• Raw: better for scalpers and day traders. Tight spreads, commission each side, and the only account with share CFDs and TradingView.

Swap fees apply to positions held overnight at 5pm New York time. Wednesdays (or Fridays on some instruments) are triple-swap days to cover the weekend.

Islamic accounts replace swaps with an admin fee per lot per night. Some instruments have a 5-night grace period: EUR/USD costs $6 and GBP/USD $3 per lot per night from the sixth night, so if you close within 5 nights on those pairs you pay neither swap nor admin fee. Others, such as EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY or BTC/USD, are charged from the first night, and the fee is not tripled on triple-swap nights.

How does this stack up?

Raw spreads are competitive but not class-leading. IC Markets typically shows tighter Raw EUR/USD spreads in live testing, and Fusion Markets undercuts the commission ($2.25 per side, or $4.50 round-turn, against $3 per side, or $6 round-turn, at FP Markets). FP Markets’ edge isn’t price. It’s the combination of all four major platforms, a group with Tier-1 licences and its support infrastructure.

Products & markets: what you can and can’t trade

This is where FP Markets narrows into a very specific profile: pure CFDs, no underlying assets.

Maximum leverage (Seychelles FSA entity)

Both account types offer up to 1:500 on forex, and other instruments have lower limits listed in the contract specifications. High leverage cuts both ways: at 1:500, a 0.2% move against you wipes out the margin. This is the structural reason most retail CFD traders lose money.

Trading platforms

One genuine strength: FP Markets is one of the few brokers offering all four mainstream platforms. MT4, MT5 and cTrader work on both accounts, while TradingView is only available on the Raw account.

A Forex VPS is available, hosted in the same Equinix NY4 and LD5 data centers as the trading servers, a meaningful latency advantage if you run 24/5 algos.

The proprietary web platform is functional but visibly dated. The mobile app looks modern but is feature-limited (account management, transfers, basic tools, biometric login). Serious trading happens on MT4/5, cTrader or TradingView, not in FP’s own apps.

Is FP Markets safe? The honest answer for SEA clients

This is the section most review sites skim. Here’s what actually protects you.

Your safety snapshot (Seychelles FSA entity)

What this means in plain terms

If FP Markets went bust tomorrow, your SEA account would fall under the Seychelles FSA, which does not run a statutory investor compensation scheme comparable to the EU’s investor compensation schemes (up to €20,000) or the UK’s FSCS (up to £85,000). Client funds are held in segregated accounts at third-party banks, which helps, but segregation is not the same as a compensation guarantee.

Why aren’t SEA clients under ASIC? Because the ASIC-regulated Australian entity can legally only onboard Australian residents. Most CFD brokers route non-AU, non-EU retail clients to offshore subsidiaries to offer the higher leverage that Tier-1 regulators cap at 1:30.

Regulator tiers, explained quickly:

• Tier 1 (strongest): FCA (UK), ASIC (AU), CySEC (EU), BaFin (DE), FINRA (US)
• Tier 2: FSCA (South Africa), CIMA (Cayman), DFSA (Dubai)
• Tier 3 (offshore): Seychelles FSA, Vanuatu VFSC, SVG FSA, Belize FSC

You keep negative balance protection, so you cannot lose more than you deposit, but you do not get the statutory compensation safety net you’d have at a Tier-1 regulated broker.

Account types

FP Markets has two main account types, Standard and Raw, both with up to 1:500 leverage and Islamic versions. Most SEA traders end up on one of them:

Islamic accounts are requested after opening an MT4, MT5 or cTrader account, by emailing FP Markets from your registered address with your account number. If your religion is not stated on your ID, you may need a proof of faith document.

PAMM/MAM accounts are for experienced managers running capital for others. MAM allows different lot sizes per sub-account, PAMM splits profit and loss by each investor’s share of the pool.

Account opening

What to expect:

Singapore-based traders get six SGD currency pairs (against USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CHF and NZD), plus gold (XAU/SGD) and silver (XAG/SGD). USD/SGD averages 1.93 pips on Standard and 1.13 pips on Raw. This is rare among international CFD brokers.

User reviews and support

• Trustpilot: 4.8 / 5 across 10,300+ reviews (October 2026)
• TradingView: 4.1 / 5 across 2,000+ reviews
• Common praise: execution speed, customer support, low spreads
• Common complaints: withdrawal friction, account terminations, occasional platform glitches

Support runs 24/7 via live chat, email and phone, in several languages. In our testing, email response times were fast (under 2 hours during business hours) and answers were substantive rather than copy-paste.

Final verdict

FP Markets is a legitimate, well-established CFD broker with one of the strongest platform line-ups in the industry and genuinely competitive raw spreads. For an active forex or CFD trader in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines or Vietnam who wants high leverage, professional tooling and a broker whose group holds Tier-1 licences, it’s a real option worth shortlisting.

Go in with eyes open on three things:

1. You are a Seychelles FSA client: not an ASIC or CySEC client. Your protection is limited to segregation and negative balance protection, with no compensation scheme behind them.
2. No real shares, ETFs or bonds: If you want long-term investing in underlying assets, FP Markets is the wrong door.
3. Raw spreads are competitive, not best-in-class: IC Markets and Fusion Markets can beat them on pure execution cost. FP Markets wins on the bundle (platforms, support, a group with Tier-1 licences and SGD pairs), not on any single number.

If any of those three matter more than the trade-off you’re getting, compare FP Markets against alternatives before opening an account. If the bundle fits your profile, it’s a solid pick.