A forex broker is a financial services company that provides traders access to a platform for buying and selling foreign currencies. Forex is short for foreign exch Transactions in the forex market are always between a pair of two different currencies.
A forex broker may know to be a retail forex broker or a currency trading broker. A forex broker works to be an intermediary between you and the interbank system. If you don't know what the interbank is, it's a term that refers to networks of banks that trade with each other.
Typically a forex broker will provide you a price from the banks where they have a series of credit and access to forex liquidity. Many forex brokers use multiple banks for pricing, and they'll provide you with the best one available. Forex brokers make their money by taking a slice of the pie when you make a trade.
While trading in Islam is often considered to be haram, it is still possible to trade. The key is to find an Islamic Forex account, which offers swap-free trading for traders of the Muslim faith.
WHAT IS AN ISLAMIC TRADING ACCOUNT？
Islamic forex accounts are halal trading accounts that prohibit the accumulation, collection, and payment of interest rates. Also known as swap-free accounts, Islamic trading accounts differ in several ways from regular Forex accounts. As Sharia law prohibits the accumulation of interest, traders with Islamic accounts do not pay or receive interest rates. In addition, transactions in accounts based on Islamic finance must be carried out without delay, so currencies must be transferred from one account to another immediately, and transaction costs must also be paid
Islamic trading accounts are designed by brokerage companies to help Muslim traders to trade in accordance with Islamic teachings. There are no interest charges or payments with Islamic trading accounts.
There are several forex trading brokers that do offers a Swap-Free trading account also known as Islamic Account.
BROKERS THAT OFFERS ISLAMIC TRADING ACCOUNTS ( SWAP-FREE TRADING ACCOUNT)
In order to make Forex trading accessible to people of the Muslim faith, many brokerage companies started offering Islamic trading accounts to their clients. These types of accounts are designed to be compliant with Islamic teachings and consequently, they differ from regular accounts in several respects. Below are some of the brokers that do offer Islamic trading accounts:
FXCC
FXCC, a Cyprus-based well-regulated broker that has been operating since 2010 offering ECN and STP trading solutions to a variety of traders. FXCC offers transparent pricing and a range of ECN trading accounts that cater to various trading styles and needs.
FXCC Islamic Account offers an Islamic account for Muslim faith traders including a swap-free account. The Islamic forex trading environment is ideal for traders following strict sharia law with a fixed fee instead of a swap. The fee is not an interest and depends on the direction of the order.
FXCC spreads start from 0.1 pips when registering an ECN XL Account.
Despite the ECN XL Account being a standalone account provided, Muslim traders are not exempted from normal trading conditions such as spreads that do not generate interest, and thus Muslim traders are still subjected to such trading fees
XM
XM as a forex broker is one of the most easily recognizable and top brokers in the world. The broker has managed to collect a variety of awards including that of the “best broker in Australasia”. They have collected similar awards for the Europe and MENA regions.
When it comes to accounts and XM swap-free accounts, in particular, you will be presented with a variety of choices. These include a total of 6 Islamic accounts that are available. Everything from the XM Zero Spread Account, to their micro trading account, and stock trading account is available as Islamic accounts.
AvaTrade
AvaTrade is another top broker that caters very well to Islamic traders. They do so through the provision of 4 swap-free account types. These account types require a minimum AvaTrade deposit of $100 to get started.
The trading accounts available include retail, standard, options, and a spread betting account. With the spread betting account though, this can be considered a form of gambling within Islamic laws. With that knowledge then, while we recommend the brokers to other Islamic account types, we would not recommend spread betting.
Vantage
Vantage offers 2 swap-free accounts through either their standard or raw ECN account types to those wishing to open an Islamic account. Deposits on these account types start from $200 for a standard account and a $500 minimum deposit for Islamic trading through a Vantage ECN account.
Spreads on these accounts are competitive for forex traders and start from 0 pips with trading available through MT4, MT5, and Webtrader.
HYCM
When it comes to Islamic trading, HYCM also offers a variety of choices. This includes 4 account types to select from including the fixed spread, raw spread, standard, and VIP accounts that are all available as Islamic trading accounts.
HYCM minimum deposits on these Islamic account types start from $100 with a maximum of $200 minimum deposit active on the account of the raw spread, and $10,000 to open a VIP account.
HYCM spreads on these accounts start from 0.2 pips with both MT5 and MT5 available for trading. Aside from a flat $5 admin fee which is charged after 14 days, the trading conditions remain the same when considering mark-up, commissions, and spreads.
FBS
Consider an FBS Islamic account, which allows you to trade on the standard terms without interest fees. Forex Islamic accounts are ideal for Muslim clients as they align with the Islamic faith and incur no swaps or interest charges on overnight positions. At FBS, we want to make trading comfortable and equal for everyone, so they offer their traders a Swap Free option on Cent and Standard accounts, making your trading interest-free.
The principles of Halal Forex Trading
Islamic finance has four basic principles:
• Prohibition of payment and receipt of any interest rate (Riba)
• Immediate exchanges in the context of trading operations
• Prohibition of gambling
• Distribution of risks and benefits
These four principles do not always fit into the Western banking and trading tradition, and to respect the principles of Islamic finance, specific trading accounts have been created, commonly referred to as “Islamic accounts.”
These accounts are offered to clients who wish to do halal Forex trading without having to separate their investment activity from their religious principles.
In general, these accounts are quite similar to traditional trading accounts, only some specific elements have been adapted to meet the fundamental principles of Islamic finance.
Advantages of Islamic Accounts
The main difference between Islamic accounts and basic accounts is that there are no swap commissions. This can be a very important advantage since you can open long-term positions without running the risk of reducing your profits due to swap commissions.
The second great advantage is that the trader will be able to open positions in currency pairs in which swaps costs are generally very high (especially in exotic pairs).
Disadvantages of Islamic Accounts
The absence of the swap can also be detrimental to the halal forex trader, since it will not be able to benefit from the positive interest payments that are often paid to short positions, along with the benefits of carrying trading strategies.
Often, to remain profitable after the elimination of interest, the non-swap broker will charge a fixed administrative fee, as banks do in Islamic finance.
WHY DO FOREX BROKERS ARE OFFERING ISLAMIC TRADING ACCOUNTS？
The online trading platform allows you to access the CFD markets 24 hours a day, and give you access to a large variety of instruments – foreign exchange, commodities, shares, bonds, ETFs, currency options, and more. Some traders engage in day trading, which means keeping positions open for a few hours or less. Other traders, however, employ trades with a longer scope and keep their positions open for more than 24 hours. When you keep a position open overnight, you will need to pay a rollover fee. This kind of interest goes against Riba's principles of Sharia law. For that reason, brokers offer an Islamic account that can be used by their Islamic clients.
Customers with an Islamic trading account will not be charged daily swaps. The swap fees are fully transferred within the MT4 platform into daily administration fees on all forex trading products.
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