Risk warning: CFDs and leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly. Investments can fall in value. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.

Ranking

Best brokers for professional traders 2026

Professional clients need access, not hand-holding: direct market access, portfolio margin, breadth of exchange connectivity, clean tax and performance reporting, and a fee schedule that scales down with volume. Electing professional status also means giving up retail protections — that belongs in any honest assessment.

Investor's country

Shows only brokers that accept clients from the selected country.

brokers rated: 26
Data as of: 30 Aug 2026

Country of residence:No country of residence chosen — all offers are shown.

Professionals

The top 3 in detail

Why these three lead — derived from the criteria this category weights most heavily.

Advertising disclosure: where a partnership is active, we may earn a commission through broker links. The provider’s terms apply. Commissions do not influence our ratings; paid placements are separately labelled as sponsored.

Charles Schwab

The full-service US giant that also owns thinkorswim, a professional-grade trading platform.

Ahead on Customer support (4.8) and Fees (4.6) — together those two carry 32% of this category's weighting.

USD 0 commission on every online listed US stock and ETF order, with no share cap and no proprietary-fund restrictions
thinkorswim desktop, web and mobile are included free — full options chains, thinkScript, backtesting and paperMoney simulation
Options at USD 0.65 per contract, with the fee waived on buy-to-close orders at USD 0.05 or less
Around 7,700 no-transaction-fee mutual funds in Mutual Fund OneSource, plus USD 0 new-issue Treasuries at auction

Group index 93/100Protection depends on your legal entity

SECFINRAFDIC

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForexBondsFundsCommodities+1

4.6

Category score

Overall score: 4.6 / 5

Strengths in this category

Trading platform28%

4.8

Product range24%

4.2

Fees22%

4.6

Safety & regulation16%

4.9

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 1 %

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

IG

The most complete leveraged-trading operation in Europe — and it prices like it knows that.

4.6

Ahead on Product range (4.9) and Safety & regulation (4.9) — together those two carry 40% of this category's weighting.

Around 17,000 tradable markets in a single account — shares, indices, FX, commodities, bonds, ETFs, turbo warrants and crypto CFDs, subject to regional restrictions
Six top-tier licences — FCA (FRN 195355), BaFin, FINMA, ASIC (AFSL 515106), MAS and JFSA — plus a mid-tier DFSA licence in Dubai; the FINMA licence among those six is a full Swiss banking licence at IG Bank S.A., which puts Swiss cash under esisuisse protection
Zero commission on UK and international shares, and the GBP 24 quarterly custody fee was scrapped outright in January 2026 rather than merely waived for active traders

Group index 100/100Protection depends on your legal entity

FCABaFin

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForex+8

Strengths in this category

Trading platform28%

4.7

Product range24%

4.9

Fees22%

4.0

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 0.8 %

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

Interactive Brokers

The cheapest serious route to almost every market on earth — if you can live with the learning curve.

4.6

Ahead on Product range (5.0) and Fees (4.9) — together those two carry 46% of this category's weighting.

US stocks from USD 0.0035 per share on the Tiered plan, minimum USD 0.35 per order and capped at 1% of trade value
Currency conversion at 0.20 basis points (minimum USD 2) — an order of magnitude cheaper than most European brokers' 0.25%–1.5%
Roughly 160 market destinations in 36 countries from a single multi-currency account, with 28 settlement currencies

Group index 90/100Protection depends on your legal entity

SECFCA

StocksETFsOptionsFuturesForex+7

Strengths in this category

Trading platform28%

4.8

Product range24%

5.0

Fees22%

4.9

Stocks (per order): 0.05 %
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 0 %

Open account Read review

Investing involves risk. Your capital is at risk.

Also worth a look

Rank 4 and below, ordered by category score.

CMC Markets

4.4

One of the best charting packages in retail CFD trading, wrapped around a narrower product range than the market count suggests.

Technical and chart-driven traders
UK and Irish spread betting

Stocks (per order): Free (CFD)
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 0.7 %

StocksETFsOptionsForex+6

Pros: Next Generation is one of the strongest charting suites bundled with a retail CFD account —115+ indicators, 70 chart patterns, 12 chart types and pattern-recognition scanners, at no extra cost
Cons: None of CMC's derivatives is exchange-traded: the options it quotes are OTC and cash-settled, and there are no cleared futures at all, so CMC is the counterparty on every derivative contract and no clearing house stands behind it

Group index 94/100

FCAASIC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Saxo

4.4

A Danish bank that trades like a professional platform — broad, polished, and no longer expensive.

Multi-asset portfolios
Bond investors

Tiered — Improved pricing at higher account tiers

Stocks (per order): 0.08 %
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 0.25 %

StocksETFsOptionsFutures+7

Pros: Full Danish banking licence (Finanstilsynet licence 1149) and SIFI designation — a stronger structural safeguard than a broker-only permission
Cons: Currency conversion costs 0.25% over mid-market for EU and Swiss clients, and up to 0.60% at the UK entity's Classic tier — the single largest hidden cost for cross-currency investors

Group index 96/100

DFSAFCA

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

CapTrader

4.2

Interactive Brokers' market access wrapped in German regulation, German support and a German phone number.

German-speaking options and futures traders
Active traders who want IBKR pricing with German support

Stocks (per order): 0.1 %
Minimum deposit: €2,000
FX conversion: 0 %

StocksETFsOptionsFutures+7

Pros: BaFin-supervised German investment firm (institution number 10156708) with a Düsseldorf address, German contract law and a free German hotline until 20:00
Cons: No Abgeltungsteuer is withheld. German investors gain a compounding advantage but must declare everything themselves via Anlage KAP, and a Freistellungsauftrag is not possible — for many people that alone rules CapTrader out

Group index 81/100

BaFinCBI

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Pepperstone

4.4

Raw spreads and five platforms for traders who care about execution cost, not about owning the asset.

Active FX traders
Scalping and day trading

From 0.0 pips — Raw spreads from 0.0 pips with commission

Stocks (per order): 0.1 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit: US$10
FX conversion: n/a

StocksETFsForexCFDs+5

Pros: Razor all-in EUR/USD cost of about 0.8 pips - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
Cons: Everything is a CFD. You never own the share or ETF, so there are no voting rights, no transferable holdings and no dividend tax reclaim

Group index 82/100

FCAASIC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

moomoo

4.3

One of the most data-rich free trading platforms on the market — if you happen to live in one of the seven countries it serves.

Data-driven active traders
US options traders

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: n/a

StocksETFsOptionsFutures+3

Pros: Free Nasdaq TotalView Level 2 depth on the US platform — Webull charges USD 3.99 per month for comparable data
Cons: Available to residents of only seven countries — the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand — with no EU, UK or DACH entity

Group index 86/100

FINRAMAS

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

IC Markets

4.2

One of the cheapest routes to raw institutional FX pricing - as long as you check which entity you are signing with.

Algorithmic and EA traders
Scalping and high-frequency FX

Stocks (per order): 0.1 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit: €200
FX conversion: n/a

StocksFuturesForexCFDs+5

Pros: All-in EUR/USD cost of roughly 0.6 to 0.8 pips on Raw Spread - a 0.0 to 0.1 pip raw spread plus USD 3.50 per lot per side
Cons: Most non-EU, non-Australian clients contract with Raw Trading Ltd under Seychelles licence SD018 - an offshore regulator with no investor compensation scheme behind it

Group index 70/100

ASICCySEC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

tastytrade

4.2

An options-specialist US broker: USD 1 per contract to open, closing commission-free — built by people who trade premium for a living.

Options premium sellers
High-volume multi-leg traders

USD 0 to close — No commission to close options positions

Stocks (per order): Free
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: n/a

StocksETFsOptionsFutures+5

Pros: Equity options are USD 1 per contract to open, USD 0 to close and capped at USD 10 per leg — large multi-leg orders scale for free
Cons: FINRA censured and fined tastytrade USD 850,000 in 2026 for failing to run adequate best-execution reviews on equity orders routed to five payment-for-order-flow market makers between 2020 and 2023

Group index 82/100

FINRASEC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Risk warning: investing in securities involves risk. You may lose some or all of the capital you invest.

Kraken

4.1

The most heavily licensed venue in crypto — and the only one that is also a chartered US bank.

Traders who prioritise regulatory quality
Crypto derivatives and margin traders

Stocks (per order): Free (US only)
Minimum deposit: €1
FX conversion: n/a

StocksETFsOptionsFutures+3

Pros: Wyoming SPDI bank charter through Kraken Financial — a full-reserve institution required to hold 100% unencumbered liquid assets against customer fiat, with a Federal Reserve limited-purpose master account
Cons: Entry-tier spot pricing of 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker is the most expensive base rate among major regulated venues, and you need USD 10,000 of 30-day volume before it drops below 0.40% taker

Group index 78/100

CBIFCA

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

LYNX

4.1

The friendliest front door to Interactive Brokers in the German-speaking market — and the most expensive one.

German-speaking investors who want IBKR access without TWS
Options and futures traders

Stocks (per order): 0.14 %
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: 0.01 %

StocksETFsOptionsFutures+7

Pros: LYNX+ is a genuinely good browser platform, and having it alongside full Trader Workstation access means you can start simple and grow into the terminal
Cons: The most expensive of the German Interactive Brokers introducing brokers on equities: 0.14% with a EUR 5.80 Xetra minimum and a USD 5.00 minimum on US shares, against CapTrader's EUR 4.00 and USD 2.00

Group index 80/100

AFMBaFin

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

ThinkMarkets

4.1

Raw-spread pricing, six licences and a strong mobile app - held back by its withdrawal record.

Active FX traders
Mobile-first traders

Stocks (per order): in the spread (CFD)
Minimum deposit: None
FX conversion: n/a

StocksETFsForexCFDs+4

Pros: ThinkZero all-in EUR/USD cost of about 0.8 pips - raw spreads from 0.0 pips plus USD 3.50 per lot per side on forex and metals
Cons: 75 percent of ThinkMarkets UK retail accounts lose money trading CFDs, and disclosures across the group's entities have ranged from roughly 68 percent to 89 percent

Group index 79/100

FCAASIC

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

DEGIRO

4.0

A low-cost route to owning shares outright in Europe - provided you never need anyone to hold your hand.

Buy-and-hold ETF investors
Options and futures traders

EUR 0 commission + EUR 1 handling — Core ETF selection without commission

Stocks (per order): €3
Minimum deposit: €0.01
FX conversion: 0.25 %

StocksETFsOptionsFutures+6

Pros: ETF Core Selection trades cost EUR 0 commission plus the EUR 1.00 handling fee - among the cheapest ETF execution available to EU retail investors.
Cons: The EUR 1.00 handling fee lands on almost every order, so a EUR 200 ETF purchase costs 0.5% before anything else. DEGIRO is cheap per order, not cheap per euro invested.

Group index 81/100

BaFinAFM

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Risk warning: investing in securities involves risk. You may lose some or all of the capital you invest.

Dukascopy Bank

4.0

A real Swiss bank running a real ECN — with a tariff sheet that punishes anyone who moves money often.

Experienced ECN and algorithmic FX traders
Clients who want a bank, not a broker

Stocks (per order): 0.06 % (CFD)
Minimum deposit: US$100
FX conversion: n/a

StocksETFsForexCFDs+4

Pros: Licensed by FINMA as both a bank and a securities firm — full Swiss banking supervision, capital requirements and audit obligations, not a CFD-broker permission
Cons: Bank transfer withdrawals are priced per currency and rail — EUR 2.3 over SEPA up to EUR 20, USD 19 up to USD 35, and nominally much more in minor currencies such as HUF 5,500 or JPY 2,500 — and card withdrawals add EUR 1.5 plus 2.5%; cash movement is the single worst part of the tariff

Group index 82/100

FINMAJFSA

Protection depends on your legal entity

Visit broker Read review

Quick comparison

The numbers that decide this category, side by side. Scroll right on narrow screens for every column.

Best brokers for professional traders — Quick comparison
Broker	Category	Overall	Trading platform28%	Product range24%	Fees22%	Stocks (per order)	Minimum deposit	Regulation	Action
1Charles Schwab	4.6	4.6	4.8	4.2	4.6	Free	None	SECFINRA, FDIC	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
2IG	4.6	4.5	4.7	4.9	4.0	Free	None	FCABaFin, FINMA, ASIC, MAS, JFSA, DFSA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
3Interactive Brokers	4.6	4.5	4.8	5.0	4.9	0.05 %	None	SECFCA, CBI, ASIC, MAS	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
4CMC Markets	4.5	4.4	4.8	4.4	4.3	Free (CFD)	None	FCAASIC, BaFin, MAS	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
5Saxo	4.5	4.4	4.7	4.8	4.2	0.08 %	None	DFSAFCA, FINMA, MAS, JFSA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
6CapTrader	4.4	4.2	4.6	4.7	4.1	0.1 %	€2,000	BaFinCBI, FCA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
7Pepperstone	4.3	4.4	4.6	3.6	4.6	0.1 % (CFD)	US$10	FCAASIC, BaFin, CySEC, DFSA, SCB, CMA	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
8moomoo	4.2	4.3	4.6	3.8	4.5	Free	None	FINRAMAS, ASIC, CIRO, SC	Visit broker Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged products are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Our methodology

How we build this ranking

No editorial gut feeling — a published calculation. This category shifts the weights of our rating model towards what its audience actually needs.

Weighting in this category

26 brokers rated

The pale tick marks the weight in the general Brokaro model.

Category weight
Base model

The formula

The category score is 70% the category-specific weighting and 30% the general overall score. A strong all-rounder therefore does not drop out simply because it fails to lead one single criterion.

Category score = 0.7 × Σ(w_i × s_i) + 0.3 × Overall score

Full methodology

Requirements to be listed

No pre-filter: every broker we assigned to this category is rated.

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