Best Platforms & Brokers for Trading in the UK
There are lots of brokers and platforms you can use for trading online. I try to list the best ones to use in the UK right here on this website.
We are compensated for referring clients to some of the listed trading providers.
Capital.com
Capital.com is the trusted partner of TradingView and Investing.com. They've got an amazing review score at Trustpilot, which you can see below.
You can trade a huge selection of instruments with this broker. This includes CFDs for over 2,400 shares, a range of indices, over 120 cryptocurrencies, and 40 commodities.
Capital.com Reviews
Platforms
- Capital.com CFD trading app: This is claimed to be the most beautiful CFD trading platform ever designed for a mobile device. It is available for both iOS and Android.
- Capital.com web trading platform: This web platform won an award for "The Best Online Trading Platform 2020".
- TradingView: You can connect Capital.com to TradingView which is an amazing charting tool.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 78.77% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Visit Capital.comIC Markets
IC Markets is a very popular trading site with over 1,750 tradable instruments and up to 500x leverage.
This includes forex CFDs for over 60 currency pairs, over 20 indices CFDs with up to 200x leverage, over 20 commodity CFDs with up to 500x leverage, over 1,600 CFDs for shares, over 10 bond CFDs, crypto CFDs with up to 5x leverage, and CFDs for futures with up to 200x leverage.
IC Markets Reviews
Review info
The review data from Google Play and the App Store are for the IC Markets cTrader App. There are also other IC Markets apps available.
Crypto trading
As with all CFD brokers, crypto is not possible to be traded in the UK. Check out other crypto trading platforms in the UK.
Platforms
- WebTrader: Trade with MT4 or MT5 in your web browser without the need to download anything.
- Mobile Trading App: Trade on your smartphone.
- MetaTrader 4: One of the most popular trading platforms.
- MetaTrader 5: Next-genetration trading platform.
- cTrader: Popular trading platform.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: Trading Derivatives carries a high level of risk to your capital and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose. Trading Derivatives may not be suitable for all investors, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.
Visit IC MarketsPlus500
With the Plus500 trading platform, you can trade over 2,000 instruments. This includes CFDs on stocks, indices, currencies, commodities, and crypto. They've got CFDs for all of the most popular cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar, Bitcoin Cash, and Cardano.
Plus500 Reviews
Availability subject to regulation. Due to recent regulations, the FCA has placed a ban on the distribution of cryptocurrencies to retail clients in the UK.
You can trade crypto with up to 2x leverage. For commodities, they offer up to 10x leverage. However, for gold, you can get 20x leverage. For stocks, you can get up to 5x leverage. For their forex CFDs, they offer up to 30x leverage.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: 72% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Additional info: Plus500UK Ltd authorized & regulated by the FCA (#509909). Plus500CY Ltd authorized & regulated by CySEC (#250/14).
Visit Plus500Libertex
With Libertex you can trade CFDs for over 50 stocks, lots of cryptocurrencies, a range of currency pairs, commodities, ETFs, and indices. They offer the largest list of cryptocurrencies of any of the CFD brokers we've written about so far. Unfortunately, none of the cryptocurrencies are available to trade for retail clients in the UK.
Libertex Reviews
Platforms
- Libertex's own: Mobile app available for both iOS and Android smartphones.
- MetaTrader 4: One of the most popular trading platforms.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 83% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Visit LibertexAVATrade
AVATrade offers trading of cryptocurrencies, ETFs, commodities, and stocks as CFDs. You can also trade forex here.
There are 11 different cryptos to trade here, including the most popular ones like Bitcoin and Ethereum. They offer up to 2x leverage on Bitcoin, 10x on commodities, and 5x on stocks.
AVATrade Reviews
Platforms
- WebTrading: Trade in your web browser without the need to download anything.
- AvaTradeGo: Trade on your smartphone.
- MetaTrader 4: One of the most popular trading platforms.
- MetaTrader 5: Next-genetration trading platform.
- AvaOptions: For FX and options trading with advanced strategies like "straddles", "strangles", and more.
- Automated Trading: For auto-trading.
- Mac Trading: Mac users can trade with MetaTrader 4 for Mac or WebTrading.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: 72% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Visit AVATradeStormgain
Stormgain is a popular crypto trading platform according to its website traffic statistics. You can use it to trade the 50 most popular cryptocurrencies. According to them, they also offer the highest leverage on the market. Up to 200x for Bitcoin.
The list of cryptos that you can trade here includes the top names you would expect like Cardano, Stellar, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and many more.
Stormgain Reviews
Besides offering crypto pairs with the stablecoin, Tether, you can also trade crypto to crypto pairs like Ethereum/Bitcoin and Litecoin/Bitcoin on this platform.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Visit StormgainCMC Markets
CMC Markets offers a trading platform with access to 10,000 financial instruments you can trade with up to 30x leverage.
This includes over 300 currency pairs, popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, over 9,000 shares (including 1,000 ETFs), a selection of commodities, and more.
CMC Markets Reviews
Platforms
- Next Generation: Choose between the advanced and the standard version.
- Apps: Trade with the iPhone, iPad, or Android app.
- MetaTrader 4: One of the most popular trading platforms.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting and/or trading CFDs with this provider.
Visit CMC MarketsIG
IG claims to be the world's leading CFD provider. They very well might be. I can at least let you know that they are one of the most popular ones according to website traffic statistics by Alexa.
With IG you can trade over 17,000 markets. This includes forex, indices, cryptocurrencies, shares, and commodities.
As I write this, they offer trading of 6 different cryptos: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, and NEO.
IG Reviews
Platforms
- IG's own: This has won several awards. The latest one in 2020.
- Apps: They offer a feature-rich Android app and a specially designed mobile web platform for iOS.
- MetaTrader 4: One of the most popular trading platforms.
- ProRealTime: For easy algorithm building.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: 75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
Visit IGSaxo Bank
Saxo Bank offers CFD trading for over 9,000 instruments. You can trade stocks, indices, forex, commodities, options, and bonds.
You can also trade cryptocurrency with Saxo Bank. They offer two different products. One is called Crypto FX which allows traders to take advantage of short-term volatility. And then there is an unleveraged instrument called Crypto ETPs for long-term investing.
Saxo Bank Reviews
Platforms
- SaxoTraderGO: Award-winning trading platform.
- SaxoTraderPRO: Platform with advanced customization features.
Demo: Try trading with a demo account free of risk.
Risk warning: 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Visit Saxo BankWhat is a CFD?
CFDs are financial instruments that can be used for short-term trading. It is not suitable for long-term investing. There are fees for holding on to a position with CFDs over time. For instance overnight. Make sure you learn how it all works before trading substantial funds. CFDs often come with high leverage enabling bigger results from smaller investments. Both to the downside and to the upside.
CFD trading advantages
There are advantages to CFD trading compared with buying stocks and other financial instruments directly. You can, for instance, trade with leverage and you can also often trade a wide range of all sorts of underlying instruments with the same CFD broker. This includes shares, cryptocurrencies, and commodities in most cases. You can also go short just as easily as you can go long with CFDs which can be a big advantage.
CFD trading risks
As you can see from the risk warning all CFD brokers are required to put on their websites, there are risks involved with online trading, and maybe CFD trading in particular. The main reason for this might be that there is built in a lot of leverage into CFDs. This can be a benefit if you know what you are doing. However, it can be terrifying to see a position move against you really heavily just because of a small drop in price on the underlying asset. CFDs also are subject to other rules as set by the brokers.