9  Best Forex Brokers for Beginners in Kenya 2023

Forex trading is exchanging one currency for another currency to profit from the change in the exchange rate. This is known as buying and selling currency pairs. The Forex market is the largest financial market in the world, with an average daily value of 6.6 trillion US dollars (USD).

Forex trading is buying and selling currency pairs to make a profit

Online Forex trading can only be done via a Forex broker. This is because the Forex market is not a physical market, it is a virtual market made up of a network of computers all over the world. This network connects traders to other market participants, such as banks and other brokers.

The Forex market is a virtual market, not a physical market

Because the Forex market is global and virtual, it operates 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. From the moment the Australian market opens on Monday morning until the moment the New York market closes on Friday evening.

Trading Forex and CFDs is not suitable for all investors as it carries a high degree of risk to your capital: 70-90% of retail investors lose money trading these products. Traders should not deposit any money that is not disposable. Regardless of how much research you have done, or how confident you are in your trade, there is always a substantial risk of loss.

What is a Forex Broker?

Forex brokers are companies which provide a connection to the Forex market. Brokers also provide the software – called a trading platform – which connects the trader to the virtual network of computers that forms the Forex market. 

Brokers provide a connection to the Forex market and a trading platform

To connect to the Forex market with a broker, traders need to open a trading account, which requires funding.

How much money do you need to trade Forex?

Most brokers require a minimum deposit to start trading. This varies from as low as 5 USD to as high as 2000 USD, depending on the broker and the account type you are opening.

In Kenya, some brokers will offer KES Accounts, which means that you can keep your trading balance in Shilling. For KES Accounts, minimum deposits start as low as 500 Shilling and can rise to 20.000 Shilling.

With 200 USD you can make small profits without too much risk

We recommend that you open an account with at least 200 USD, as this will give allow you to make small profits without too much risk.

Can you get rich by trading Forex?

It is possible, but it will not happen overnight. Forex trading is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Most successful Forex traders have developed a strategy that allows them a steady stream of income.

Forex trading is not a get-rich-quick scheme

While huge profits are possible, so are huge losses. And if you chase huge profits be prepared to lose to all your money.

How do I start trading Forex?

Before you start trading Forex, you will need to learn how the Forex market works and gain experience without risking any money.

Beginners need education and experience before they start trading

To learn how the Forex market works you will need to educate yourself. Forex education can be found from many different sources:

• Right Here at FX Scouts: We have a huge library of educational articles covering everything from how to place to your first trade, to a detailed breakdown of the MetaTrader 4 trading platform, and the more complex topics like advanced technical analysis.
• Forex Brokers: All good Forex brokers have education sections. Excellent Forex education includes a structured course for beginners, a mix of video and text content, and an archive of webinars for complex topics.
• Other Resources: There are a huge number of online resources available for Forex traders. Communities of experienced traders are always uploading video tutorials and there are a great number of books written about every aspect of trading.

To gain trading experience without risking any money you will need to open a demo account with a Forex broker. Demo accounts are an exact mirror of the actual Forex market – except all the money is virtual. Demo accounts are provided by Forex brokers, usually in the hope that you will then open a real account with them.

You should find a demo account that you can use for as long as you want

The best demo accounts are unlimited. This means you can use them for as long as you want. Some brokers will limit their demo accounts to 6 weeks, or even as short as 2 weeks. This is not enough time to gain the necessary experience.

It is very important to use a demo account until you are comfortable with the Forex market and your trading platform. If you start trading on the real market without the necessary experience you will lose money.

Trading Forex without experience or education will result in heavy losses

Once you feel that you are educated enough to understand the Forex market and are comfortable with your demo account, then you can open a real account with a Forex broker and start trading!

How do I choose a Forex broker?

When choosing a Forex broker, beginners should focus on a broker’s regulation, educational support, customer support and demo account. To better understand why these are so important we will look at all three in detail below.

After reading through this short guide you will:

• Understand why regulation is crucial and how to check if your broker is regulated.
• Understand the dangers of trading without education and how to educate yourself appropriately.
• Understand how high-quality customer support can improve life for beginner traders.
• Understand the importance of a demo account and how to choose the best one.

Regulation Means Protection

Regulation is the single most important aspect of judging a Forex broker for all traders, not just beginner traders. Unregulated brokers cannot be trusted with your money and have no legal requirement to offer a fair trading environment.

Simply put, having a regulated broker is not optional.

Regulation ensures that Forex brokers provide a fair and transparent trading environment. It ensures the security of your funds and offers protection against broker bankruptcy. It also ensures that Forex traders have a complaint channel and access to investor insurance.

Unregulated brokers will often claim to be regulated, so you should always check what they say is true. We know that unregulated brokers like to contact people on Facebook and via messaging apps, so be especially careful if this happens. Many unregulated brokers will often to entice beginner traders with incredible profits, offering to double or triple their money within weeks. This is a sure-fire way to know that a broker should not be trusted.

Do not trust brokers who offer incredible profits

Checking a broker’s regulatory status is a simple process for all the major regulators and only takes a couple of minutes (and could save you a lot of money and heartache!)

A closer examination of the main regulators in the world is required, we are also going to discuss how to check if a broker is regulated. Some of the main regulators in the world are:

• South African Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA)
• Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
• UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)

South African Financial Services Conduct Authority (FSCA)

The South African FSCA is well-regarded but is not considered one of the best international regulators. Many South African traders like to work with FSCA regulated brokers as this provides local protection and requires the broker to have a local office and local bank accounts.

Checking if a broker is regulated by the FSCA is easy. The FSCA offers a search tool for all authorised Financial Service Providers (FSPs) here: https://www.fsca.co.za/Fais/Search_FSP.htm.

This is what the search window looks like:

The best way to use this search function is to input the brokers FSP number, which they are legally required to display at on their website.

For instance, here is Khwezi Trade’s FSP notice and number at the bottom of its webpage:

You will notice that Khwezi Trade is not the name of the Financial Services Provider regulated by the FSCA, but is actually Khwezi Financial Services. This is quite common as brokers are often part of a larger financial company. It does mean that searching by broker name using the FSCA’s search tool can be quite tricky, so use the FSP number if you can.

Using this information from Khwezi Trade’s website we can then search the FSCA database. Here we can see that Khwezi Financial Services is indeed an authorised FSP:

We can also see that Khwezi Financial Services is approved to offer derivative instruments. This is important as all Forex CFD trading is derivative trading.

Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)

The Australian financial regulator has an excellent global reputation and is continually active in combatting broker fraud and manipulation. Many of the most respected Forex brokers in the world are Australian, and ASIC is an important part of their reputation for trustworthiness.

Checking a broker’s regulatory status with ASIC is a very similar process to the South African FSCA’s, the ASIC search tool can be found here: https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/.

Unfortunately, detailed information on each company in the ASIC database is only available via purchase. See below for Pepperstone’s ASIC entry:

Like the FSCA, all ASIC regulated brokers are required to publish their ASIC licence on their homepage. We have had a few reports of unregulated brokers claiming to be based in Australia and using the names of regulated financial companies, so it is always best to check thoroughly.

UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is seen as the best financial regulator in the world. It’s no surprise that their search function is the easiest to use and the most thorough, you can access it here: https://register.fca.org.uk/s/.

Like other major regulators, all brokers with an FCA licence are required to publish their FCA reference number on their website, here is AxiTrader’s FCA number at the bottom of their website:

Like Khwezi Trade in South Africa, AxiTrader is the trading name of a larger financial group, in this case, the FCA licence holder is AxiCorp Limited. Using the FCA reference number, we can search the FCA’s database of registered companies and find AxiCorp Limited’s entry:

Notice that the FCA also warns of unregulated brokers that are attempting to use AxiCorp’s identity to scam unwary traders.

Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)

CySEC is the foremost regulator in the EU and Cyprus has a long history of regulating online Forex brokers. As a European regulator, all brokers with a CySEC licence must abide by the EU’s MiFID II legislation. Among other things, this requires limits on leverage and the removal of trading bonuses.

CySEC’s broker search tool functions much like the FCA’s and all CySEC licenced brokers are required to publish their licence number on their website. CySEC’s database and search tool can be found here: https://www.cysec.gov.cy/en-GB/entities/investment-firms/cypriot/

Below, we can see the entry for AFX Capital Markets, which went bankrupt last year and is suspected of several wrongdoings, including using client money to cover operational costs.

CySEC makes it clear that AFX Capital Market’s licence has been suspended. A clear sign not to trust a broker.

Other Regulators

There are many other small regulators around the world, and Forex brokers will hold licences with them to avoid the restrictions placed on them by ASIC, CySEC and the FCA.

Commonly seen small regulators include the Seychelles FSA, the Mauritius FSC, St Vincent and Grenadines FSA, the Belize IFSC and the Bahamas SCB. While being regulated by one of these smaller regulators does not mean that a broker is bad, it does mean that traders are not as well protected.

The best and most trustworthy brokers are regulated by at least one of the three major regulators (FCA, CySEC, ASIC) or the FSCA. It is common for brokers to have multiple regulators, one for each region in which they operate.

Education is the Root of Success

The best Forex brokers for beginners have realised that Forex education is at the very heart of customer retention. Educated Forex traders become successful – and profitable – traders, and the more successful traders a broker has on its books, the more successful the broker will be.

Educated Forex traders are profitable Forex traders

Forex education comes in two forms: Standard educational material, such as that found in our education section, which explains the concepts and function of Forex trading, and market analysis and research.

Market analysis is usually provided by Forex brokers themselves or specialist third-party companies. Market analysis and research are only helpful once a trader has a firm grasp on the basics of Forex trading, including terminology and common themes.

Education and Structured Courses

The best Forex brokers for beginners have realised the importance of building structured Forex trading courses.

A good example of a structured Forex course for beginners is the video series at XM. The videos are organised in an intuitive format, and are specifically designed to introduce you slowly to more advanced concepts:

Good brokers will have structured courses for different levels of experience and expertise. The best Forex brokers for beginners have structured courses that cover the following:

• Forex Terminology: What are the terms traders will encounter when trading? What does it mean to go long or go short? What are support and resistance levels?
• Basic Topics: Which currencies are traded and what are their symbols? What are the important concepts like lots, pips, and order types (such as stop loss and take profit)?
• Advanced Topics: What is technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis? What are indicators and robots and how do they work. What are common trading strategies and how do you implement them?

Many brokers will also run webinars, which are live and often interactive tutorial sessions. Many of the best Forex brokers for beginners offer weekly webinars and store them in an archive for later viewing. As a leading broker in terms of educational support, FXCM is a good example. In the image below we can see that FXCM has a large archive of previous webinars:

This is exceptional from a beginner’s standpoint, as these rich learning experiences are all available free-of-charge and without registration.

Market Analysis and Research

Market analysis and research is the other cornerstone of Forex education. For traders with a solid understanding of how Forex trading works, market analysis will be the next step to profitable trading.

Most of the best brokers for beginners will have large research teams which provide frequent updates on market movements and insightful analysis on potential developments. A good example of this is easyMarkets’ market news section:

Updated every few minutes, easyMarkets’ market news offers deep insight into the price movement of a wide range of assets. Analysts also offer their thoughts on possible future outcomes based on their research. This is ideal for new traders seeking to build a deeper understanding of the Forex market and new trading opportunities.

Some Forex brokers, such as Admiral Markets, enter into partnerships with specialist third-party companies like Trading Central, to provide traders with market analysis. Trading Central is a collection of products that offer actionable investment ideas with 24-hour multi-asset coverage, technical and fundamental analysis, and back-tested trading strategies.

Demo Accounts for Trading Practice

Forex brokers also provide demo accounts. These are trading accounts that mirror the live Forex market but allow traders to use virtual funds to simulate the trades and strategies they would ordinarily use when trading with real money.

Demo accounts provide an exact simulation of real market conditions

Demo accounts serve several purposes. Apart from accurately simulating live trading conditions, they can also be used to test-drive a Forex broker and test new strategies. The best Forex brokers for beginners provide free and unlimited Forex demo accounts.

IG Markets, one of our highest ranked brokers, provides unlimited demo accounts on two different platforms with 20,000 USD of virtual funds.

Demo accounts are so important because they are the only way for beginners Forex traders gain experience without risking money.

Customer Support

It is essential that beginners get good customer support from their broker. It is one of those things that you hope you never need; but when you do need it, it must be easily available, fast, and genuinely helpful. When your money is on the line, you need your problem fixed as soon as possible.

The best Forex customer support will be available 24 hours a day (Monday-Friday) via live chat, telephone, messaging services and email. It is also important that a broker has great IT support, as setting up a trading platform can be tricky for new traders. Many new traders cannot find the time during the workweek to get set up, so weekend support can be helpful but is rare.

Setting up a trading platform can be tricky for beginner traders

Customer support should also be multi-lingual. Apart from English, many South African brokers now offer customer support in Afrikaans, Zulu, and Xhosa. It is important to have a customer support agent who speaks your language and understands the local needs of your region.

The needs of a beginner in South Africa are not the same as the needs of a beginner Forex trader in Russia. The best beginner Forex brokers understand this and set up their customer support desks to accommodate the needs of their clients.

The Bottom Line

As well as providing market access, Forex brokers also play a crucial role in the learning process for beginner traders. Beginner Forex traders should use the parameters above to decide whether the broker they are considering is truly the best Forex broker for them or not.

Such a broker should be regulated, provide sound Forex education, a free and unlimited demo account, and excellent customer support.

Forex Risk Disclaimer

Trading Forex and CFDs is not suitable for all investors as it carries a high degree of risk to your capital: 75-90% of retail investors lose money trading these products. 

Forex and CFD transactions involve high risk due to the following factors: Over-leveraging, unpredictable market volatility, slippage arising from a lack of liquidity, inadequate trading knowledge or experience, and a lack of regulatory protection for clients.

Traders should not deposit any money that is not disposable. Regardless of how much research you have done, or how confident you are in your trade, there is always a substantial risk of loss. (Learn more from the FCA or from ASIC)

Our Methodology

Our State of the Market Report and Broker Directory are the result of extensive research on over 100 Forex brokers. The explicit goal of these resources is to help traders find the best Forex brokers – and steer them away from the worst ones – with the benefit of accurate and up-to-date information.

With over 150 data points on each broker and over 3000 hours of research and review writing, we believe we have succeeded in our goal. 

In a world where trading conditions and customer support can vary based on where you live, our broker reviews focus on the local trader and give you information about these brokers from your perspective.

All research has been conducted by our in-house team of researchers and writers, gathering information from various company representatives, websites and by sifting through the fine print. Learn more about how we rank brokers.