The USD/ZAR is a currency pair known as exotic and the rand component (ZAR) is an emerging market currency which holds less liquidity than that of developed market currencies. Because Exotic currencies carry lower liquidity than most major traded market currencies such as the US dollar, Swiss franc, euro, British pound or Japanese yen, will carry a wider spread and higher cost to trade. The lower liquidity offers higher volatility and in turn, a higher reward (or loss) opportunity.
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With this being said, the South African economy is far more developed than a number of its emerging market peers and the liquidity is considered to be higher than many of its counterparts which makes it more than sufficient for trading purposes. There are two major approaches for trading USD/ZAR, including hedging and speculating.
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eToro
eToro is an online broker which was founded in 2006 and offers CFDs and Social Trading, with a head office based in Cyprus, UK. eToro is supervised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) regulatory bodies and has been in operation for over 14 years.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Used by 6,000,000+ traders | Doesn’t allow scalping |
| Established in 2006 | Inactivity Fee |
| Regulated by Financial Conduct Authority, CySEC, ASIC | Limited range of instruments |
| Min. deposit from $200 |
eToro offers traders two ways to trade: CFDs, Social Trading and eToro traders will need to make a minimum deposit of $200 and the platform can accommodate various levels of traders from beginner to expert. Traders can trade in a wide variety of over 100 instruments and over 50 currency pairs on eToro’s user-friendly custom trading platform which is available as a browser-based web application. eToro also offers traders mobile apps for Android and iOS, making it easier to keep an eye on and execute trades.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Offers STP | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Low min deposit | Micro account | Bank Transfer |
| Mini account | PayPal | |
| Standard account | Skrill | |
| Islamic account | Payoneer | |
| Neteller |
eToro supports a wide range of languages including English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian. 24/6 customer support is available via telephone and support ticket.
FP Markets
FP Markets is a global, online broker regulated by the Australian ASIC and the Cypriot CySEC which was founded in 2005 and offer Forex trading and has a head office situated in Australia. When starting off with FP Markets traders will need to make a minimum deposit of $100 and a demo account is on offer with a wide variety of instruments and currency pairs on offer.
Over 100 instruments and over 60 currency pairs in total is on offer, on the popular MT4 forex trading platform. FP Markets also offers traders mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Low Forex Fees | High Stock CFD fees |
| Easy Account Opening | Limited Product Portfolio |
| Quick Deposit and Withdrawal | Outdated Platform |
Trading Benefits
| Trading Benefits | Accounts Offered | Funding Methods |
| Allows scalping | Mini | Bank Transfer |
| Allows hedging | Standard | Credit/Debit |
| Offers STP | ECN | Electronic Wallets |
| Low min deposit | STP | |
| Offers Negative Balance Protection | Managed |
All accounts support a wide range of languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Russian, French, Italian, Greek, Philippines, Latvian, Polish, Indonesian, Thai, Malay, German, Vietnamese.
Customer Service is available via email, phone and live chat.
XM Group
XM Group (XM) is a group of regulated online brokers regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| • Low stock CFD and withdrawal fees | • Limited product portfolio |
| • Easy and fast account opening | • Average forex and stock index CFD fees |
| • Great educational tools | • No investor protection for non-EU clients |
XM offers traders more than 1000 financial instruments to trade on both the MT4 and MT5 platforms, including Forex Trading, Stocks CFDs, Commodities CFDs, Equity Indices CFDs, Precious Metals CFDs and Energies CFDs. Forex trading is available on over 55 pairs, including the major USD, GBP, EUR and JPY pairs. Traders must take note that XM does not offer binary options or futures.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features | Accounts Offered | Funding Methods |
| Negative Balance Protection | Micro | Wire Transfer |
| Low Spreads | Standard | Credit/Debit |
| Low Commission | XM Zero | Neteller |
| Hedging Allowed | UnionPay | |
| Scalping Allowed | WebMoney | |
| Qiwi |
Customer Service is available via live chat, Phone and email support.
Pepperstone
Pepperstone was founded in 2010 and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), as well as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Segregates client funds | Limited range of instruments |
| Established in 2010 | |
| Min. deposit from $200 |
Trading platforms on offer include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader. All three FX trading platforms come with a free demo account which will allow traders to test out the forex broker and platform for 30 days.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Mini account | Bank Transfer |
| Offers STP | Standard account | PayPal |
| Low min deposit | MAM/PAMM account | Skrill |
| Offers Negative Balance Protection | Islamic account | Payoneer |
| Neteller |
Pepperstone offers 24/5 multiple language support via email, phone and live chat.
IC Markets
IC Markets is a regulated Forex ECN and CFD broker which offers more than 236+ financial instruments across Forex, Commodities, Indices, Bonds, Cryptocurrency, Stocks and Futures on the MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader platforms for desktop, web and mobile. IC Markets is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), as well as the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Segregates client funds | Limited range of instruments |
| Established in 2007 | Not FCA Regulated |
| Regulated by ASIC | |
| Min. deposit from $200 |
IC Markets offers traders three main types of live trading accounts to choose from, including Raw Islamic swap-free accounts and the use of a free demo trading account.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Mini account | Bank Transfer |
| Offers STP | Standard account | PayPal |
| Low min deposit | Zero spread account | Skrill |
| ECN account | Neteller | |
| Islamic account |
Customer support is available 24/7 via Live Chat, Phone and Email.
XTB
XTB is a European broker which was founded in 2002, and has offices in 13 countries across the globe. XTB is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 522157) and has been listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2016.
XTB is a fintech company which combines financial services with innovative technology and it offers clients two platforms to choose from:
- xStation5
- MT4
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Lowest FX spreads | Does not accept U.S. clients |
| Regulated by FCA (U.K.) | Non-FX spread costs are high |
| Offers protection for client accounts | No guaranteed stop loss |
| Emphasis on customer service | No back-testing or automated trading capabilities |
Traders can choose from 25 crypto CFDs (9 individual coins or 16 crypto pairs) which are available 7 days a week (from 3am Saturday to 9pm Friday). Traders can buy or sell digital coins with 2:1 leverage and 365-day expiry.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Micro account | Bank Transfer |
| Offers STP | Mini account | PayPal |
| Low min deposit | Standard account | Skrill |
| Guaranteed stop loss | Islamic account | Payoneer |
| Offers Negative Balance Protection | Neteller |
XTB support a wide range of languages including English, Spanish, Czech, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Turkish, Arabic, and Russian.
Roboforex
Roboforex are an online, global broker which was founded in 2009 and offers traders Forex and CFDs trading. RoboForex is authorized and regulated by the International Financial Services Commission (IFSC) with license number IFSC/60/271/TS.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Segregates client funds | Limited range of instruments |
| Established in 2009 | Not FCA Regulated |
| Regulated by IFSC Belize | |
| Min. deposit from $10 |
When starting off with Roboforex traders will need to make a minimum deposit of $1 and there is an option available for a demo account for those who would like to get acquainted with the platform. Roboforex can accommodate various levels of traders, from experienced to beginner, and they can trade a wide variety of instruments and currency pairs. Roboforex offers over 100 instruments and over 35 currency pairs in total. Roboforex offers traders both of the MetaTrader platforms; MT4 and MT5 plus the cTrader platform developed for traders. Roboforex also offer mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Benefits | Accounts Offered | Funding Methods |
| Allows scalping | Micro | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Mini | Bank Transfer |
| Offers STP | Standard | Payoneer |
| Low min deposit | Zero | Neteller |
| ECN | ||
| STP | ||
| Islamic |
Customer support is available via phone, Webchat, Wechat, Skype, Viber, Telegram, Facebook chat, WhatsApp, email and a call-back request.
Admiral Markets
Admiral Markets is an online broker which was founded in 2001 and offers Forex and CFDs trading, is globally recognized and has a head office based in the UK. Traders will need a minimum deposit of $200 to start and can sign up for a demo account to in over 148 instruments and over 40 currency pairs. Admiral Markets is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (EFSA).
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Segregates client funds | Inactivity Fee |
| Established in 2001 | |
| Regulated by CySEC | |
| Min. deposit from $100 |
Admiral Markets offers both of the MetaTrader platforms; MT4 and MT5 and mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Micro account | Bank Transfer |
| Offers STP | Mini account | Skrill |
| Low min deposit | Standard account | Payoneer |
| ECN account | Neteller |
Admiral Markets offers multilingual customer support via Telephone, Live Chat and Email.
Trading 212
Trading 212 are an online broker which was founded in 2006 and offers Stocks trading, Forex trading, Commodities trading, and Indices trading. Trading 212 are a global broker and has a head office situated in UK. Trading 212 is Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) and is used by over 14,000,000 traders.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Strict Regulation | No US clients |
| Segregated Client Funds | Limited leverage for non-professional clients |
| Financial Services Compensation Scheme | No MT4/MT5 |
| Commission Free Trading | |
| Intuitive trading platform | |
| Low Minimum Deposit |
Trading 212 are the UK’s number one trading and investment app with over 14,000,000 downloads, thus a large userbase but is not available in the following countries: US
Trading Benefits
| Trading Benefits | Accounts Offered: | Funding Methods: |
| Allows hedging | Invest account | PayPal |
| Offers STP | ISA account | Skrill |
| Low min deposit | CFD account | Visa |
| Guaranteed stop loss | Demo account | |
| Offers Negative Balance Protection |
Trading 212 offers an outstanding, highly responsive customer service team available 24 hours a day across a variety of platforms and in 16 different languages.
EasyMarkets
EasyMarkets is one of the most popular choices for Beginners and is regulated by CSEC (Cyprus) and ASIC (Australia) and offers beginner forex traders:
- Enhanced risk management tools as standard
- Fixed spreads on all forex pairings
- An easy-to-use forex trading platform
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Segregates client funds | Doesn’t offer VPS |
| Established in 2003 | Limited range of instruments
|
| Regulated by CySEC and ASIC | Not FCA Regulated |
| Min. deposit from $1 |
The available trading platforms offered are MT4 and the EasyMarkets web platform.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Micro account | Bank Transfer |
| Low min deposit | Mini account | Payoneer |
| Guaranteed stop loss | Standard account | Neteller |
| Offers Negative Balance Protection | Islamic account |
Customer Support is available 24/5 via various chat channels, email, phone and web forms.
FXPrimus
FXPrimus is an online broker founded in 2009 offering Forex trading, and Social Trading and is global broker with a head office in Cyprus.
- Regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), The markets in financial instruments directive (MiFID)
- Used by over 10,000 traders
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Segregates client funds | Limited range of instruments |
| Established in 2009 | Not FCA Regulated |
| Regulated by CySEC, MiFID | |
| Min. deposit from $100 |
FXPrimus has won numerous industry awards over the 11 years a wide variety of instruments and trading currency pairs. FXPrimus offers over 125 different instruments to trade, including over 43 currency pairs.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Micro account | Bank Transfer |
| Offers STP | Mini account | Payoneer |
| Low min deposit | Standard account | Neteller |
| ECN account | ||
| Managed account | ||
| Islamic account |
Customer Support is available via email, webform, phone and live chat.
AvaTrade
AvaTrade is an online broker which was founded in 2006 and offers Forex, CFDs, Spread Betting and Social Trading and is a global broker with their head office situated in The British Virgin Islands. AvaTrade is regulated in Europe, the British Virgin Islands, Australia, Japan, and South Africa by ASIC, CySEC and FCA.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Used by 200,000+ traders | Doesn’t offer VPS |
| Established in 2006 | Not FCA Regulated |
| Regulated by Central Bank of Ireland, ASIC, IIROC, FSA, FSB, UAE and BVI | |
| Min. deposit from $100 |
For those who are looking to start out with AvaTrade will need a minimum deposit of $250 and a demo account is available for those who want to get acquaint with the popular MT4 forex trading platform. AvaTrade also offer mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Micro account | Bank Transfer |
| Low min deposit | Mini account | PayPal |
| Standard account | Skrill | |
| Islamic account | Payoneer | |
| Neteller |
Customer support is available by email, phone, or live chat.
IG
IG Group was founded in 1974 and is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the U.K. and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in Australia.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Used by 178,000+ traders | Inactivity Fee |
| Established in 1974 | Limited range of instruments |
| Regulated by Financial Conduct Authority and ASIC | |
| Min. deposit from $250 |
The country of a traders residency will determine which account type they can open. In most countries, they will only be able to trade forex, CFDs and options. Traders can choose between two trading platforms, IG’s proprietary trading platform or MetaTrader 4.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows scalping | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Allows hedging | Mini account | Bank Transfer |
| Offers STP | Standard account | PayPal |
| Low min deposit | Payoneer | |
| Guaranteed stop loss |
Customer Service is available 24/7 via Phone, Live Chat and Email.
City Index
City Index is a world leader in spread betting, FX and CFD Trading, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The City Index trading platform offers traders a range of customisation options, which includes 16 chart types with 65+ indicators specifically designed for investors to perform technical analysis.
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Used by 140,000+ traders | Doesn’t allow scalping |
| Established in 1983 | Inactivity Fee |
| Regulated by Financial Conduct Authority, ASIC and MAS | Limited range of instruments |
| Min. deposit from $25 |
To open a live trading account, traders will need a minimum deposit of at least $25. City Index offers over 12,500 different instruments to trade, including over 84 currency pairs on the ever-popular MetaTrader4 trading platform.
Trading Benefits
| Trading Features: | Accounts offered: | Funding methods: |
| Allows hedging | Demo account | Credit cards |
| Offers STP | Micro account | Bank Transfer |
| Low min deposit | Mini account | Payoneer |
| Guaranteed stop loss | Standard account | |
| Managed account | ||
Multilingual Customer support is available by email, phone, or live chat.
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In Conclusion
Speculation and hedging are two key trading strategies associated with trading the USD/ZAR and speculators often employ day trading and swing trading strategies in order to trade this exotic pair.
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