FP Markets SEA review

Want our global review instead? Read it here.

FP Markets pitches itself as a well-regulated, low-cost CFD broker serving over a million traders worldwide. Founded in Sydney in 2005, it has picked up 60+ 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 a $50 entry point. You’ll also fall under the Seychelles FSA – not ASIC, not CySEC – which means higher leverage but weaker statutory protection. And you won’t get real stocks, bonds, or ETFs. Only CFDs.

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 structures that cover most SEA traders. Full live 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. Usually the cheaper option above ~5 trades/day.

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 a flat admin fee that only kicks in after a 0–5 night grace period, depending on the instrument. Example: EUR/USD and GBP/USD have 5 nights free, then $6 and $3 per lot per night respectively. If you close inside 5 days on those pairs, you pay zero swap and zero admin fee.

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 $3/side commission ($4.50 round-turn at FP Markets vs. $4.50 at Fusion on the equivalent account). FP Markets’ edge isn’t price – it’s the combination of all four major platforms, tier-1 parent regulation, and stronger 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.

Max leverage by instrument (Seychelles FSA entity)

High leverage cuts both ways. At 1:500 leverage, a 0.2% move against you wipes out the margin. This is the structural reason 73% of retail CFD accounts at this provider lose money.

Trading platforms

One genuine strength: FP Markets is one of the few brokers offering all four mainstream platforms.

A Forex VPS is available, hosted in the same Equinix NY4 and LD5 data centers as the trading servers – 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 €20,000 ICS, the UK’s £85,000 FSCS, or Australia’s AFCA coverage. 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 – 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 offers five account types. The two that cover most SEA traders are Standard and Raw:

Islamic accounts require emailing [email protected] with proof of faith after account opening. You can choose MT4, MT5, or cTrader inside the Islamic wrapper.

PAMM/MAM accounts are for experienced managers running capital for others – MAM allows different lot sizes per sub-account, PAMM splits P&L by pool allocation percentage.

Account opening

What to expect:

Singapore-based traders get SGD as both a base currency and a tradable pair – against USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CHF, NZD, plus gold (XAU/SGD) and silver (XAG/SGD). This is rare among international CFD brokers.

User reviews and support

• Trustpilot: 4.8 / 5 across 10,000+ reviews
• 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 English, Mandarin, Malay, Thai, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. 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 – someone who wants high leverage, professional tooling, and a broker with a Tier-1 regulated parent – 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 statutory protection is limited to segregation and negative balance protection – 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 + tier-1 parent oversight + 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.