FBS is becoming one of the best brokers in Asian countries in 2018, particularly in Indonesia and Thailand. And that is why I will review FBS and my FBS reviews will mostly aim for new traders who are still having problems finding themselves a good broker. They started their business in 2009 and they currently allow its users to trade a maximum of 35 pairs of currency, 2 CFD, cryptocurrencies and also 4 precious metals.
You should use standards in finding the best as well as the most suitable broker for you. These standards that any excellent broker has to have are as follows:
- Customer support
- Local offices
- Availability
- Trading costs
- Commission
- Spread
- Bonuses
- Trading conditions
- Quotes quality
- Account types
- Payment systems
- Credibility
- Regulations
In the next parts, I will go through all listed standards so you can see whether or not FBS is excellent. I will also some of its aspects with the best forex brokers in the world like Exness and XM.
Credibility
As I have mentioned in many of my articles, regulation is very important and foremost factor in rating the credibility. Regulation is the license provided by the trusted financial organization to manage forex brokers. Any broker that has regulations has to make sure that they follow the rules set by the organization provided the regulations so that the interests of traders can be protected. Generally, only large brokers can meet the conditions to acquire regulations. FBS currently has CySEC as well as IFSC which are two of the most reliable regulations so you can relax and put your faith on FBS.
But does it mean that having a lot of regulations make a broker be more reliable and better to trade than the ones that have less? I would say whoever think that is wrong and that is a common thought of many new traders. The number of regulations does not reflect a broker is better than the others. Generally, there are two scenarios relating to regulations. The first scenario is that if your country has its own regulation, then you can simply look for brokers that have your country’s regulation and that is already enough. For example: FBS has a South African regulation which is IFSC, so traders in South African will not have to worry when trading with FBS. Another scenario is that if your country does not have any regulation, mostly happen in Asian countries, you should look for brokers that have the most reliable regulations like CySEC which FBS currently owns one. Brokers have to follow rules when they acquire a regulation so they do not want to get a lot of regulations because it would put too many limits on them. And regulation is just an indication that a broker is reliable and also safe to trade with. Usually, brokers should only get one reliable regulation.
Trading cost
Spread:
Low-spread brokers are usually favorite brokers of many traders. Spread can be considered as the difference between the Ask and Bid price of a currency pair. In the case of FBS, it is only 0.2 pip to 1.1 which makes FBS stay on the list of the lowest spread brokers, surpassed the spreads of many large brokers like XM, FXCM, and FXTM.
Commission:
Generally, brokers charge their traders commissions for income and FBS is doing the same. The commission rates of FBS are varied based on account types. For its Standard and Cent account, they do not charge any commission.
Bonuses:
There are many bonus types which are being offered by FBS such as loyalty program, welcome bonus and deposit bonus. They are offering the highest rate, a maximum of $123. Their deposit bonus program returns 100% of the amount deposited. The cash back program also rebates traders $7 for each completed lot. They are also offering a $50 bonus for new traders signing up. You just need to create a new account to claim the best forex bonuses.
Trading condition
Type of account:
There are currently 4 accounts that are being offered by FBS and they are ECN account and regular accounts (Fixed Spread, Cent and Standard account). Each targets different types of trader.
Cent account: New traders are recommended to choose this account due to its low deposit requirement (only 1$). Therefore, you can put a small amount of money like 10$ into the account and practice real-world trading at a very low fee. Do not put too much money if you do not know much about trading as 90% of new traders probably lose all the thing they put on FBS. FBS also offers a low spread with only 1 pip. FBS’s order volume is also low as 0.01 lot Cent up to 1000 lots. You will lose less money when it gets lower. And you won’t have to pay a single cent of commission when trading with Cent account.
Standard account: Traders with a bit more experience are recommended to choose this account. Its requirement for minimum deposit is about $100 which is pretty average while the spread is much lower than the spread of Cent account, which is 0.5 pip. The leverage is pretty high, at 1:3000 maximum. And the higher the leverage, the better it is. Leverage of XM standard account is much lower than FBS’s, only 1:888. The maximum order volume of standard account is 500 lots and the minimum is 0.01. And similar to Cent account, traders will not have to pay any commision.
Fixed Spread account: it is also often called Zero Spread account. And you may know from the name that the account does not have spread. Instead, traders will have to pay $20 of commission. This is somewhat understandable because most brokers get income from the spread. If their spreads are zero, then they have to find another way of getting income, which is the commission. For this account, you have to deposit at least $500. Leverage and order volume are similar to the Standard account.
ECN account: this account is favored by many highly experienced traders and experts as well. FBS requires traders to deposit a minimum amount of $1000. You may think it is high but you can enjoy a much lower commission (6$) than other brokers in the market. The commission of this account is as low as other top brokers like XM and Exness, which are 6$ and 5$ respectively. Payment system
You may think that the US&UK based brokers are very good. Yes, they are good inside their countries only and it is a different story in Asian countries like Indonesia and Thailand. In Asian countries, if you want to deposit using your credit cards, you will be charged from 1.7 to 4% of your total deposited amount. The average profit rate is only 5% and you have to pay 4% just for putting money into the sites? You would be crazy to accept that. That is why Thai traders are recommended not to trade with those US&UK based brokers. Therefore, it is important for them to choose brokers with good payment system and FBS is doing great in this particular aspect. They allow you to deposit and also withdraw money via many local banks and international payment gateways in many Asian countries. Not just that, they also offer really fast transferring speed, only behind Exness reviews. It normally only takes half an hour to process while it is hours or even days for other brokers.
Customer support
Many traders really take the customer support very seriously in choosing brokers because they need a lot of support as forex trading is very complicated. In this aspect, FBS is offering an fantastic customer support. If you can speak English, you can access their customer support 24/7 with no fee at all. If you cannot speak English, FBs also has many offices in Egypt, China, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia and also Thailand that can support local traders 5 days a week.
