Shariah, the Islamic law, prohibits interest payment. However, the rollover interest is an integral part of forex trading. How can a Muslim forex trader from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates trade currencies without violating the religious law? The answer is to find a forex broker willing to offer an account with no overnight interest. Such swap-free accounts are usually offered only to Muslims in order to prevent abuse. To substitute for the revenue from a missing swap, forex brokers also charge a flat fee for this service. The only exceptions is the American forex broker Fastbrokers, which does not charge any additional fee for its Sharia account.
A review of the online forex brokers offering an Islamic account follows. The list of Islamic forex brokers was created using an interactive comparison of forex brokers. I included only forex brokers that offer Islamic swap-free accounts, charge no commission for forex trading, and are regulated by trustworthy authorities. The five cheapest Muslim friendly brokers are ordered starting with the lowest spread (transaction cost).
#1. Fastbrokers
Fastbrokers is one of the few ECN forex brokers who offer Islamic forex accounts. What do the letters “ECN”, so coveted by forex traders, mean in practice? First, Fastbrokers has no dealing desk that would trade against their clients or requote prices. Second, Fastbrokers’s variable spread can sometimes decrease to zero pips. Alternatively, you can also ask them for a fixed spread, which is a bit higher (2 pips on EUR/USD). But, why would you? Muslim forex traders can trade 19 currency pairs, gold, silver, and futures. Depending on the account, you can choose any leverage from 1:1 up to 200:1. Fastbrokers uses the popular and highly sophisticated MetaTrader 4 trading platform. It supports hedging, trailing stops, automated trading, and mobile trading – a combination, which is still quite rare among forex brokers. Fastbrokers is also the only forex broker that does not charge any additional fee for an Islamic account. You can get more information about this forex broker from the Fastbrokers review.
#2. FXOpen
FXOpen welcomes traders from all Muslim countries. The fixed spread is among the lowest in the industry (2-3 pips on majors). In addition to 30 currency pairs, a Muslim forex trader can also trade precious metals (gold). The available leverage is among the highest (500:1). Since FXOpen’s minimum deposit is only $1 and it the minimal contract size only $100, it is possible to test FXOpen’s live trading platform practically without any risk. The forex trading platform itself is the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4), which features hedging, trailing stops, and free automated trading (EA). FXOpen also offers mobile trading. Their customer support speaks Malaysian. For more information read the FXOpen review.
#3. eToro
eToro distinguished itself from the rest of the crowd by an easy-to-use, visually-based trading platform. Obviously, their platform appeals more to beginners than to advanced traders. For example, although it supports hedging, eToro does not provide any algorithmic trading. On the other hand, both beginners and advanced traders would be definitely interested in eToro’s fixed spread of 2-3 pips on all majors. It is not so frequent to see a broker offering the fixed spread of 2 pips on USD/CHF. Another attractive feature of this Islamic forex broker is the leverage of 400:1. eToro also provides support in the Arabic language. For more details, see the eToro review.
#4. Finexo
Finexo is a German forex broker, under the oversight of strict German authorities (BaFin). The leverage is 200:1 and the minimum deposit $25. Features of the trading platform include trailing stops and mobile trading. But the spread is higher (2-5 pips for major currencies) than in the previous cases. What is unique, Finexo can communicate not only in Arabic, but also in Turkish. You can find more details in the Finexo review.
#5. Easy Forex
Easy Forex offers the spread of 3-6 pips on majors, which I consider a bit too high. However, they offer a great variety of 182 different currency pairs and precious metals. Another advantage over their competitors is that you can hold an Islamic forex account in one of twelve currencies, not just USD or Euro. The customer support speaks Arabic. Easy Forex offers the 200:1 leverage, a minimum deposit of $100, hedging, mobile trading, but, again, there is no automated trading. If you want to know more about this Islamic forex broker, please read the Easy Forex review.
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