Pepperstone review

Regulated by

ASIC (AFSL 414530); FCA (FRN 684312); CySEC (388/20); DFSA (F004356); BaFin; CMA Kenya; SCB Bahamas

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

ASIC Professional Registers, AFSL 414530

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Major regulated banks; entity-dependent

Negative balance protection

Yes for eligible retail clients; entity-dependent

Compensation scheme

FSCS for eligible UK clients; ICF for eligible Cyprus clients; jurisdiction-dependent elsewhere

Audited by

Independent external/statutory auditors

Not available to

United States and other jurisdictions where Pepperstone cannot legally provide services

A regulator is also the body that publishes what a broker has done wrong, which is half the reason the licence matters.

Pepperstone holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA, CySEC and BaFin. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

It also operates an offshore entity (SCB). Which one you are onboarded to depends on where you live, and the two carry very different protections - worth confirming before you deposit.

ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

CySEC licences passport across the EU and follow the 1:30 retail leverage cap, with the Investor Compensation Fund covering eligible claims.

Check the licence yourself: ASIC Connect, the FCA Register, the CySEC register of investment firms, the DFSA public register.

Legal entity

Pepperstone Group Limited

Company number

ACN 147 055 703

Headquarters

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Founded

2010

Publicly listed

No

Parent company

Pepperstone Group

Employees

500+

Also trades as

Pepperstone

Deposit methods

Visa/Mastercard, bank transfer, PayPal and supported regional payment methods

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, cards and supported electronic methods

Deposit time

Many electronic methods instant; bank transfer takes longer

Withdrawal time

Method-dependent

Local payment methods

Country/entity-dependent

Spread from

0.0 pips

EUR/USD spread

0.1 pips Razor / 1.1 pips Standard

GBP/USD spread

0.2 pips Razor / 1.2 pips Standard

Commission

$3.50 per side / $7 round turn on MT4/MT5 Razor

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 0.8 pips Razor

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight funding may be charged or credited

Withdrawal fee

None internally

Currency conversion

Applicable where conversion is required

Complaints about cost are usually complaints about swap and inactivity fees rather than the spread.

A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

Pepperstone lists a minimum deposit of $10. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Markets

Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Metals, ETFs, Cryptocurrencies

Currency pairs

93

Total instruments

1,350+

Crypto CFDs

Yes, jurisdiction-dependent

Maximum leverage

1:500

Execution model

No dealing-desk intervention / liquidity-provider pricing

Execution speed

From 50ms

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop and platform-specific orders

Servers

Global low-latency trading infrastructure

Leverage up to 1:500 is available on this entity. High leverage does not increase your expected return - it increases position size for the same deposit, and shortens the move needed to close you out.

Pepperstone covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, metals, etfs, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: visa/mastercard, bank transfer, paypal and supported regional payment methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Platforms

MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView, Pepperstone Web Platform

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Pepperstone App plus MT4/MT5/cTrader

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes

Copy trading

Yes

Indicators

Extensive MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView libraries

Third-party tools

TradingView, MT4, MT5, cTrader

API access

Yes, including cTrader/API and institutional connectivity

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

MetaTrader 5 handles more asset classes and order types than MT4, but expert advisors are not compatible between the two - an MT4 EA will not run on it.

cTrader shows depth of market and level II pricing, and is usually paired with raw-spread accounts rather than fixed-spread ones.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

Minimum deposit

$10

Account types

Standard, Razor, Swap-Free, Professional, Demo

Account currencies

AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, HKD

Islamic account

Yes

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

Typically 0.01 lots

Time to open

Typically a few minutes, subject to verification

Support hours

24/5 plus 18 hours over the weekend

Contact channels

Live chat, email, phone, Help Centre

Languages

Multilingual

Telephone

N/A

Email

support@pepperstone.com

Live chat response

Typically within minutes

Education

Extensive: trading guides, webinars, platform education and educational content

Research

Market analysis, trading insights, technical/fundamental commentary and platform tools