Pepperstone Australia Review 2022

Pepperstone Australia Summary

Safety and Regulation

In online trading, the safety of traders’ money is the most important factor. Australian clients at Pepperstone are registered under regulatory compliance of the Australian Securities and Exchange Commission (ASIC).

Following are the regulation details of major regulatory licenses held by Pepperstone globally.

1. ASIC of Australia
   The Australian Securities and Exchange Commission (ASIC) is a top-tier financial regulatory authority based in the Australian jurisdiction. Pepperstone holds the ASIC regulatory license by the name Pepperstone Group Limited with ACN number 147 055 703 and AFSL number 414530.



2. FCA of UK
   The financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a top-tier financial regulatory authority based in the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom. Pepperstone is regulated by FCA in the UK under the name of Pepperstone Limited and FRM number 684312. Australian clients are not registered under FCA regulation but it increases the trust factor of Pepperstone.



3. CySEC of EU
   CySEC is not a top-tier regulatory authority but is an important regulator as its license allows brokers to operate in the European Union. Pepperstone holds the CySEC license by the name Pepperstone EU Limited under license number 388/20.

Apart from these major regulatory authorities, Pepperstone also holds a regulatory license from SCB (Bahamas), CMA (Kenya), DFSA (Dubai), and BaFIN (Germany).

The clients’ money is kept in a segregated bank account of a top-tier bank. Pepperstone was launched in 2010.

The top-tier FCA and ASIC regulation makes Pepperstone safe for trading online. It is one of the safest options to trade financial instruments as CFDs in Australia.

Peppestone Fees

The Fees can greatly affect the trading experience in leveraged forex and CFD trading. It includes all the charges paid to the broker and liquidity providers. Higher fees mean lower profits for the traders and higher revenue for the broker.

We have separately reviewed every component of the fees that are commonly incurred by online forex brokers.

1. Spread: Spread is the difference between bid and ask price of any underlying CFD instrument.

   Pepperstone offers traders to choose between two account types. One account is commission-based (Razor) while the other is commission-free (Standard). The spreads with the commission-based razor account are low starting from 0 pips while the same with the Standard account starts from 1 pip.

   

   For EUR/USD as a benchmark, the average typical spread with the Razor account is 0.17 pips and 0.77 pips with the Standard account type. The following table compares the average typical spread in pips for the most traded financial instruments during peak trading hours.

   Trading Instrument	Standard Account	Razor Account Account
   EUR/USD	0.77	0.17
   GBP/USD	1.19	0.59
   EUR/GBP	1.4	0.4
   Gold/USD	13.81	13.81
   Crude Oil	2.3	2.3
   US Tech 100 Index	1	1
   UK 100	1	1

   
   

2. Trading Commission: The trading commission at Pepperstone is only incurred on the Razor account while trading Forex and shares. For the Standard account, the trading fee is built only in the spread. Apart from the low spreads, the trader will need to pay a fixed commission for each trade order with the Razor account.

   

   If MT4 or MT5 trading platform is chosen with the Razor account, the single side trading commission will be USD 3.5 or GBP 2.25 depending on the base currency of the account. For a round turn trade of a standard lot, the commission will be USD 7 and GBP 4.5 with MT4 and MT5 Razor accounts.

   If the cTrader trading platform is chosen with the Razor account type, the trading commission will be $6 for a round turn trade of a standard lot.

   The trading commission of shares is different for stock exchanges and also has a minimum limit.

   

   The trading commission is only applicable on CFDs of forex pairs and shares. For all the other instruments, only spreads will be incurred as a trading fee regardless of the account type.

3. Swap Fee: This is also known as rollover interest rate or overnight charges. The swap fee is the fee incurred on each position if it is kept open overnight. For every night the position is kept open, this will keep on adding. Hence, clients must check the swap fee before keeping any position overnight. This is very important for those traders who trade for the tenure of more than a day.

   The swap rates at Pepperstone are slightly higher than average when compared with other regulated brokers in Australia. For EUR/USD as a benchmark, the swap rates are -11.49 and 7.42 for long and short positions respectively.

4. Non-Trading Commission: Most CFD brokers charge inactivity fees if no trade orders are placed for a prolonged period. No such inactivity is charged at Pepperstone. There is no account opening or maintenance fee at Pepperstone in Australia. The deposits and withdrawals are also free of additional commission.

   Overall, there are no non-trading fees at Pepperstone while the trading fees are lower than the majority of the regulated CFD brokers. We found Pepperstone to be among the most cost-effective CFD brokers in Australia.

Pepperstone Account Types

Pepperstone offers 2 types of accounts to suit different types of traders in Australia. Both the accounts can be opened with AUD and 9 other currencies as a base currency. Australian Dollar AUD can be chosen as the base currency of any account type.

The minimum recommended deposit amount for both account types is $200 for margin requirements. However, Australian clients can deposit as low as 1$ to start trading at Pepperstone.

The major difference between the two types of live trading accounts is based on trading fees. The Razor account is a commission-based account while the trading fees with the Standard account are built into spreads only.

All the other features offered by Pepperstone are the same for both account types. The number of available instruments, maximum leverage, and trading conditions are the same for both account types.

1. The Razor account is ideal for scalpers and algorithmic traders. Due to lower spreads, the advantage of a small movement in pips can be taken with the Razor account. High-volume traders may also find the Razor account type more useful.
2. The Standard account is ideal for beginners and small volume traders as there is no commission involved with this account.

As per the ASIC regulations, the maximum leverage for the retail accounts is capped at 1:30 for forex pairs. An upgrade to a professional account can allow traders to use maximum leverage of up to 1:500. There are two criteria for retail clients to upgrade to a Professional account at Pepperstone in Australia.

Net Assets of $2.5m (includes property, savings, super, and assets) or Gross income of $250k in each of the last two financial years. Apart from this, traders need to demonstrate their skills by completing an online quiz.

The client also must have worked in the financial sector for at least one year or have traded leveraged FX or CFDs 20 times per quarter for at least 4 quarters in the preceding 2 years with a notional value of AUD$50,000 or more.

The choice of account types is good to suit different types of traders in Australia.

How to Open an Account at Pepperstone?

The account opening process at Pepperstone is simple and can be completed within 24 hours. There are 4 steps involved in setting up a live trading account in Australia.

Step 1: Create Login
Once you click on ‘Join now’ at the Pepperstone website and app, you will be redirected to the account opening form. The first step is to enter the email and choose a password. A confirmation link on the entered e-mail address will be sent to confirm the email.

Clients can also choose to log in with Google or Facebook accounts.

Step 2: Complete Account Opening Form
The next step requires clients to enter their personal details. This includes the address, phone number, date of birth, income, and employment details. Clients also need to select the account type and base account currency in this step.

After filling in the personal details, Pepperstone will take a quick survey of your trading experience and expertise.
Step 3: Verification of Identity

The details that you entered in step 2 need to be verified by Pepperstone before you start trading. For this, you need to submit the address and identity proof with supporting documents. The Australian National ID or passport can be used to verify the address and identity.
This process will be completed by the Pepperstone staff. Hence, it can take up to 3 business days to complete but is generally completed within 24 hours.

Once the details are verified, a confirmation mail will be sent to you with login details of the trading platform. These credentials can be used to login into selected trading platforms.

Step 4: Fund your Account
The last step is to deposit funds in order to start trading. Pepperstone recommends clients to make an initial deposit of $200 to start trading. However, the minimum deposit amount is $1. Any of the available methods including local bank transfer can be used to deposit funds at Pepperstone.

Once the funds are deposited, you can place orders to trade with any of the available trading instruments.

It is always advisable for beginners in forex trading to start with demo accounts. Trading with virtual currencies will provide experience and will make the newcomers get comfortable with the features and terminologies. CFD trading involves high risk and is not suitable for all types of traders.

Pepperstone Deposits and Withdrawals

There are multiple methods to deposit and withdraw at Pepperstone in Australia. Withdrawals can only be done through the methods used for the deposit.

There is no lower limit on the minimum deposit amount at Pepperstone. Australian clients can also deposit as low as $1 through m-Pesa.
Following are the methods that can be used to transact at Pepperstone in Australia:

1. Bank Transfer: Pepperstone accepts deposits and withdrawals through local bank transfers in Australia. The deposits are reflected into trading accounts within a day while the withdrawals through this method can take up to 3 business days to process.
   Clients can also deposit through international wire transfer but a commission of $20 is charged for each transaction through wire transfer. Local bank transfer is completely free in Australia.
2. e-wallets: Poly, BPay, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, and UnionPay are the accepted e-wallets for deposits and withdrawals in Australia.
3. VISA/MasterCard: The debit and credit cards can also be used to deposit at Pepperstone. The card must be registered with the same name as the trading account.

Withdrawal requests made before 07:00 (AEST) will be processed the same day. All other withdrawal requests executed before 21:00 (GMT) will be processed the next day.

Pepperstone Trading Platforms

The availability of multiple trading platforms is a major advantage of choosing Pepperstone in Australia. Traders can configure any account type with desired trading platform and base account currency. Following are the trading platforms available at Pepperstone in Australia.

MetaTrader 4: MT4 was developed by MetaQuotes Software in 2005 and is still one of the most chosen forex and CFD trading platform in the world. It is simple and quick with the most basic features and works well on every device.

MetaTrader 5: MT5 is an upgraded version of MT4 developed by the same company in 2010. The MT5 offers more features, patterns, indicators, and time frames to help traders make better decisions. MT5 is a better choice for experienced and algorithmic traders.

cTrader: cTrader is a modern-looking trading platform with more tabs and features. It was developed in 2011 by Spotware Systems. Pepperstone supports cTrader trading platform on Standard as well as Razor account type.

Australian traders can choose the best suited trading platform for themselves after checking the platform through a demo account. AUD is also available as base currency on all the available trading platforms.

Pepperstone Research and Education

Peppertstone offers a decent variety of research and education tools for Australian clients. Most of these tools are quite helpful for beginners while some are much more useful for experienced traders.

The market analysis reports are published on a regular basis which keeps the traders updated with the market activities. These reports are prepared by the experienced analyst team at Pepperstone on regular basis. They also broadcast a weekly debate program called ‘The Trade-Off’ that covers the latest events and common queries of the traders.

Capitalise.ai is an automation tool that allows clients to automate their trading strategies without coding. It is available for free and is very useful for traders who prefer algorithmic trading but cannot code efficiently.

The Autochartist market scanner helps the traders to identify trading opportunities in the market. API Trader grants access to live liquidity feed on concerned financial markets. Pepperstone also offers an account monitoring service that also allows traders to copy the trade orders of other traders.

The education section contains articles, guides, webinars, and videos of all the available asset classes at Pepperstone. Apart from these, there are no other tools that can improvise the skillset of advanced traders. Beginners will find the available education tools very helpful.

Available Instruments

Pepperstone offers CFD trading on various financial instruments. Contract for Deposits (CFDs) is derivative instruments of financial markets in which there is no actual buying or selling of underlying assets. Only the price difference is speculated by the traders to book profits and losses.

High leverage can allow traders to open bigger positions with a small deposit but it will also increase the risk factor. Following are the trading instruments that can be traded at Pepperstone in Australia.

1. 63 Currency Pairs: A total of 63 currency pairs including major, minor, exotics, and other crosses can be traded at Pepperstone with any of the account types. The maximum leverage for the Australian clients is 1:400 for CFDs on forex pairs.
2. 26 Indices: Indices of North American, African, UK, and European stock markets can be traded as CFDs. The maximum leverage is 1:200 for indices with professional accounts. For retail clients, the maximum leverage is 1:20. 3 currency indices can also be traded with max leverage of 1:10 for retail clients.
3. 32 Commodities: Precious metals, energy, and soft commodities can also be traded as CFD. The maximum leverage for retail clients is 1:20 for this asset class.
4. 1000+ Shares: More than 1000 stocks of the US, UK, Germany, and Australian stock exchanges can be traded as a CFD. The commission is different for the US, European, and Australian stocks. The leverage ratio ranges from 1:20 to 1:5 for CFDs on stocks.
5. 100+ ETFs: Australian clients can go long and short on various exchange-traded funds from 35 countries worldwide. These ETFs are traded as CFDs with a maximum leverage of 1:20. The CFDs on ETFs are subject to spreads, overnight charges, and a fixed trading commission on each order.

Overall, the number of available trading instruments is higher than most of the regulated online CFD brokers in Australia. Trading on cryptocurrencies as CFD is not available at Pepperstone.

Pepperstone Customer Support

The customer support services can be utilized to solve any query faced at any stage. The support executives at Pepperstone can be reached out through multiple methods.

1. Live Chat: The live chat window on the website and app is a great option to clear most of the queries faced. The live chat gets connected to a chatbot at first but can be connected to an agent upon request. The live chat support is also available through WhatsApp.
   
   We tried to connect with them multiple times. The connectivity with the live agent can take up to 5-10 minutes. The support staff is helpful and can clear most of your queries.
2. E-mail: The support staff at Pepperstone can also be reached out through [email protected] This is a slower method as the executives can take up to 24 hours to revert back to the email.



3. Local Phone Support: Pepperstone offers local phone support for Australian clients. Clients can connect with the support staff at Pepperstone through the local helpline number 1300 033 375. This is a major advantage for Australian clients.

According to our review, the customer support service is excellent with the live chat. The support service is also available on WhatsApp which is quite user-friendly. The availability of local phone support is a major advantage for Australian clients.

Do We Recommend Pepperstone?

Yes, Pepperstone is a well-regulated CFD broker that is also regulated by top-tier ASIC and FCA. The trading fees are low and there is no minimum deposit requirement. Transactions can be done via local bank transfer and m-Pesa without any additional commission.

Multiple trading platforms are supported with different account types and AUD as the base currency. The customer support service is excellent and local phone support is also available.

According to our review, Pepperstone is one of the most cost-effective CFD brokers in Australia with the lowest third-party risk.

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