Most forex broker roundups you will find are useless to an American, because most of the brokers on them are not allowed to take your money. Under the Commodity Exchange Act, only a firm registered with the CFTC as a futures commission merchant or a retail foreign exchange dealer, and approved by the National Futures Association as a Forex Dealer Member, can legally be the counterparty to a retail forex trade with a US resident.
That is a very short list. We checked every broker previously named on this page against NFA BASIC, the National Futures Association public registration database. Five firms cleared. The rest are either not registered in the United States at all, or do not offer forex to Americans. This page now covers only the five that do.
Read this before the broker list. Retail forex is leveraged speculation, and most people who do it lose money. US brokers are required to publish how their own customers actually did, so this is not a guess.
tastyfx, one of the five firms below, discloses that for the calendar quarter ending June 30, 2026, it had 8,801 active non discretionary trading accounts, of which 34.5% were profitable and 65.5% were unprofitable. The four quarters it publishes run from 40.84% profitable down to 34.5%. In other words, in the best quarter on its own list, roughly 3 traders in 5 still lost money.
Leverage is why. It magnifies losses as fast as gains, and losses can exceed your deposit. Money you need for rent, debt or an emergency fund does not belong in a forex account.
Which forex brokers can legally accept US clients
This is the whole picture, verified against NFA BASIC. The NFA ID is included so you can look each one up yourself in about thirty seconds. Registration status is not a recommendation and it is not insurance, but its absence is disqualifying.
| Firm | NFA ID | CFTC registration | Takes US forex clients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Brokers LLC | 0258600 | Futures commission merchant, Forex Dealer Member | Yes |
| tastyfx LLC (formerly IG US LLC) | 0509630 | Retail foreign exchange dealer, introducing broker | Yes |
| Gain Capital Group LLC (FOREX.com) | 0339826 | Futures commission merchant, retail foreign exchange dealer | Yes |
| OANDA Corporation | 0325821 | Futures commission merchant, retail foreign exchange dealer | Yes |
| Charles Schwab Futures and Forex LLC | 0477394 | Futures commission merchant, Forex Dealer Member | Yes |
| eToro (all entities) | 0384298, 0382918 | Not an NFA member | No |
| XM Global Limited | 0434838 | Not an NFA member | No |
| Saxo Bank A/S | 0352785 | Not an NFA member | No |
| CMC Markets UK plc | 0293966 | Not an NFA member | No |
| City Index | 0312620 | Not an NFA member | No |
| Pepperstone | No record | Does not appear in NFA BASIC | No |
All figures on this page come from each firm's own published pricing and disclosure pages and from NFA BASIC. Where a broker does not publish a number, we say so rather than estimating one.
The forex brokers a US resident can actually use
Interactive Brokers
Interactive Brokers LLC is a CFTC registered futures commission merchant and an approved NFA Forex Dealer Member, NFA ID 0258600. Spot currency trading is a separate permission you have to request, either during the application or later from the client portal, and it is granted only to US legal residents on the US entity. It is not switched on by default.
Its pricing is the reason to take it seriously. Rather than widening the spread and calling it free, Interactive Brokers passes through quotes it aggregates from what it describes as 17 of the largest FX dealers and charges a stated commission on top: 0.20 basis points of trade value at monthly volumes up to $1 billion, with a $2.00 minimum per order. Displayed quotes can be as tight as 0.1 pip. You can see exactly what the trade cost you, which is unusual in this industry.
Open an account at Interactive Brokers. Spot currency permission must be requested and is limited to US legal residents.
tastyfx
tastyfx LLC is the firm that used to be IG US LLC. The NFA ID did not change, 0509630, and it is registered as a retail foreign exchange dealer and an approved Forex Dealer Member. If you have seen IG recommended for forex, this is the only part of IG that can take you. The global ig.com business states plainly that its site is not directed at residents of the United States.
It publishes two main pricing models. The Standard account is commission free on 80 or more currency pairs with spreads it advertises as low as 0.8 pips. The Zero+ account quotes spreads from 0.0 pips with a flat $5 per lot per side commission. It also states a minimum deposit of $1, which is technically true and practically misleading, since margin requirements mean a realistic starting balance is far higher.
We do not have a partnership with tastyfx, so there is nothing to click here. Go direct, and read its public disclosures page before you fund anything. It is the source of the profitability numbers quoted at the top of this page, and it is worth seeing them in context.
FOREX.com
FOREX.com is the retail brand of Gain Capital Group LLC, NFA ID 0339826, registered as both a futures commission merchant and a retail foreign exchange dealer. It is one of the largest US forex businesses by account count and is now part of StoneX.
It runs two pricing structures. The Spread Only account charges no commission and builds the cost into the spread. The RAW Pricing account quotes majors from 0.0 pips and charges a fixed $7 commission per $100,000 of notional value per side, which works out to $7.70 per side on a 100,000 unit EUR/USD trade at 1.1000, using the broker's own worked example. The stated minimum initial deposit is $100, though FOREX.com itself recommends at least $2,500 for workable risk management.
No partnership here either, so no link. One thing worth knowing before you open an account: NFA BASIC lists disciplinary history against this firm. That is exactly the kind of thing the database exists to show you, and you should read it rather than take our word for it.
OANDA
OANDA Corporation, NFA ID 0325821, is registered as a futures commission merchant and a retail foreign exchange dealer, and has been a fixture of the US retail forex market for years. Its US help center states there is no minimum deposit requirement for a standard individual account, with the exception of Premium status, which requires $20,000 on deposit or more than $10 million in monthly traded volume.
It offers a spread only model and a core spread plus commission model, with spreads advertised from 0.0 pips on the latter. OANDA also flags something on its own site that every US forex trader should internalize: forex accounts are not protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, and they get no preference in a bankruptcy proceeding under Part 190 of the CFTC regulations. A forex account is not a brokerage account, and it is not insured like one.
We have no OANDA partnership, so go direct. If a no minimum account is what drew you to forex in the first place, read our guide to investing with little money first, because there are far better uses of a small balance than a leveraged currency position.
Charles Schwab Futures and Forex
If you came here looking for TD Ameritrade, this is where it went. The NFA record makes the lineage explicit: NFA ID 0477394 was TD Ameritrade Futures and Forex and is now Charles Schwab Futures and Forex LLC. The tdameritrade.com domain returns a permanent redirect to Schwab. The TD Ameritrade brand no longer exists, so any list still recommending it is out of date.
Schwab states that Schwab Futures and Forex is a CFTC registered futures commission merchant and an NFA Forex Dealer Member, and it offers forex on the thinkorswim platform, which you have to apply and be approved for separately. Schwab does not publish a forex specific account minimum or a standard spread on its forex pages, so we are not going to invent one.
No partnership, no link. If your Schwab account is really for long term investing and forex was a curiosity, compare it against our roundup of the best options trading platforms, which covers the same brokers for a market with far better published data.
The brokers we removed from this page
This article previously recommended ten brokers. Six of them cannot legally take a US retail forex client, one no longer exists under that name, and one does not offer forex to Americans at all. Here is what each check found.
- TD Ameritrade. The brand is retired. Its domain permanently redirects to Schwab, and its forex entity now trades under the Charles Schwab name on the same NFA ID
- IG. The global IG site states its information is not directed at residents of the United States. Its US arm is registered, and it is now called tastyfx, which is listed above
- Pepperstone. No record in NFA BASIC at all, so it cannot be a counterparty to a US retail forex trade
- XM Group. XM Global Limited appears in NFA BASIC as not an NFA member, and XM states it does not provide services to residents of the United States
- Saxo Bank. Both Saxo Bank A/S and Saxo Capital Markets US LLC show as not an NFA member. Saxo's own site says it is not directed at any person who is a citizen or resident of the United States
- CMC Markets. Both the UK and the US entities show as not an NFA member, and the site states its information is not directed to residents of the United States or Belgium
- City Index. Every City Index entity in NFA BASIC shows as not an NFA member
- eToro. Covered in its own section below, because the answer is more specific than a simple no
We also removed the performance and marketing claims that came with those entries, including assertions that one platform's security was best in the industry and that low trading costs ensure greater profits. Neither is a verifiable statement, and the second one is not even true.
What eToro USA actually offers, and what it does not
eToro deserves a straight answer, because it advertises currency trading heavily and this page used to repeat that pitch. The eToro you may have read about, with its social trading and copy trading and long list of currency pairs, is eToro's international business. That business is not available to you in the United States.
eToro's own regulatory disclosures describe the US operation as three entities: eToro USA LLC and eToro NY LLC, registered as money services businesses with FinCEN for crypto, and eToro USA Securities Inc., a FINRA and SIPC member broker dealer for securities. None of them is a CFTC registered retail foreign exchange dealer. In NFA BASIC, eToro Group Ltd and eToro USA LLC both show as not an NFA member, and a newer eToro USA Futures LLC record shows as pending with no registration categories yet.
The bottom line on eToro and forex. eToro USA does not offer retail forex to US users. Its own US pricing page lists stocks, ETFs, options and crypto, and says nothing about currency pairs. If you are in the US and you want to trade forex, eToro is not the answer, and we are not going to pretend otherwise just because it is the one brand on this page we have a partnership with.
What eToro USA is genuinely useful for is a different job: commission free US stock and ETF investing, options with no contract fee, and crypto at a stated 1% buy or sell fee. If that is actually what you are after, it is a reasonable pick. Just do not open it expecting a currency account.
See what eToro USA offers if you want stocks, ETFs, options or crypto. It does not offer forex to US users.
How to check a forex broker yourself in two minutes
You should not have to trust this page, or any page. The regulator publishes the answer free, and it takes less time than reading a review.
- Go to NFA BASIC at nfa.futures.org and search the firm name, or the NFA ID if you have it
- Read the membership status line. You want NFA Member Approved. Anything reading not an NFA member means that entity cannot be your forex counterparty
- Read the registration types. For retail forex you want retail foreign exchange dealer, or a futures commission merchant that is also an approved Forex Dealer Member
- Check the exact legal entity, not the brand. Many groups run one registered US company and several unregistered offshore ones that share a logo
- Open the regulatory actions tab. Fines and disciplinary history are listed there, and some of the largest names on this page have them
If a broker soliciting you does not appear at all, that is your answer. The CFTC's own guidance is blunt about this: most scams involve unregistered entities, and if a firm cannot be found in NFA BASIC, you should ask them why.
How to choose between the five
Once you have removed everyone who cannot legally take you, the decision gets much simpler, because you are choosing on cost and platform rather than on marketing.
- Compare the all in cost, not the headline spread. A commission free account is not cheaper, it just moves the fee into the spread where you cannot see it. Interactive Brokers and the raw pricing accounts at FOREX.com and tastyfx let you see both halves
- Ignore the minimum deposit. A $1 or no minimum account tells you nothing about whether you can fund a position and survive a normal drawdown
- Check the pairs you actually intend to trade. Advertised tight spreads usually apply to EUR/USD and a handful of majors, not to the exotic pair you had in mind
- Understand that your broker is your counterparty. As the NFA required disclosure puts it, when you lose money trading, your dealer is making money on those trades
- Trade a demo account first. Every firm on this list offers one, and it costs nothing to find out that this is harder than it looks
A fair question before you open anything. Forex is one of the few markets where the industry publishes, by regulation, how badly its own customers do, and the answer sits around two thirds losing in any given quarter. If your goal is to grow money rather than to trade for its own sake, an ordinary index fund and an emergency fund will beat the median forex outcome without you doing anything at all.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, but only through a firm registered with the CFTC as a futures commission merchant or a retail foreign exchange dealer and approved by the NFA as a Forex Dealer Member. As of this update that means Interactive Brokers, tastyfx, FOREX.com, OANDA and Charles Schwab Futures and Forex. Trading with an unregistered offshore broker is not illegal for you as an individual, but you give up every protection the US regime provides, and recovering funds from an offshore firm is close to impossible. Interactive Brokers is the registered option we have a partnership with, and spot currency permission is limited to US legal residents.
No. eToro's US business runs through eToro USA LLC and eToro NY LLC for crypto and eToro USA Securities Inc. for securities, and none of them is a registered retail foreign exchange dealer. eToro's US pricing page lists stocks, ETFs, options and crypto only. The currency trading and copy trading you may have read about belongs to eToro's international business, which does not serve US residents. eToro USA is worth a look for commission free stocks and ETFs, but not for forex.
Most retail forex accounts lose money, and in the US you do not have to guess, because Forex Dealer Members are required to publish the results of their own non discretionary customer accounts every quarter. tastyfx reported 34.5% of its 8,801 active accounts profitable for the quarter ending June 30, 2026, and its four published quarters range from 40.84% down to 34.5% profitable. Treat any broker or course that talks about forex income without showing you those numbers as a warning sign.
Because US registration is expensive and restrictive. A retail foreign exchange dealer must meet a $20 million adjusted net capital requirement, submit to NFA supervision, and operate under leverage caps far tighter than those allowed offshore. Most international brokers decide the US market is not worth it and geoblock American clients instead. That is why a broker being unavailable to you is a statement about regulation rather than about quality.
Not the way it is in a brokerage account. OANDA states on its own site that forex accounts are not protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation and receive no preference in a bankruptcy proceeding under Part 190 of the CFTC regulations. Registration gives you a regulated counterparty, capital requirements and a complaints process. It does not give you insurance on your balance, and it does not protect you from your own trades.
It is lower than it should be, which is the trap. tastyfx states a $1 minimum, OANDA states no minimum for standard accounts, and FOREX.com states $100 while itself recommending at least $2,500 for workable risk management. The minimum that matters is the one that lets you size a position small enough to survive an ordinary losing streak, and that is a function of your risk per trade, not of what the broker will accept.
Where to go next
If what attracted you to forex was the promise of an active, fast moving market, there are regulated versions of that with better disclosure and far more published data. Our guides to the best penny stock trading apps and commodity trading apps cover the two closest neighbors, and our roundup of the best stock research websites covers the homework side, which is the part that actually separates outcomes.
If it was the currency angle specifically, crypto is the market most people move to next, and our list of the best cryptocurrency apps applies the same registration test we used here. And if you would rather stop trading and start compounding, VUG versus QQQ is a more useful hour of your time than any currency pair.
