Pepperstone Review 2023

Pepperstone is our #9 ranked forex and CFD broker in Nigeria. It is well regulated and offers low spreads on various currency pairs. It does not have local office in Nigeria and no local phone support. Read our detailed review of Pepperstone for the traders in Nigeria.

Regulated By: ASIC, FCA, CySEC

Headquarters: Sea Sky Lane, B201, Sandyport, Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas

Foundation Year: 2010

Min Deposit: $200

Open Account Note: Forex & CFD Trading is Risky.

Pepperstone is a well-regulated forex and CFD broker based in the Bahamas but has various offices around the globe. It is an STP broker that offers to trade on a wide variety of trading instruments at low spreads and commission.

Pepperstone was launched in 2010 and has acquired regulatory licenses from FCA, ASIC, and CySEC. We liked the quick execution of trades and transactions through local banks in Nigeria. However, it does not have a local office in Nigeria and does not have a local phone number for customer support.

Read our comprehensive and analytical review of Pepperstone for the forex and CFD traders in Nigeria. We have covered each component of the broker along with various pros and cons of choosing Pepperstone in Nigeria.

Pepperstone Nigeria – A quick look

Is Pepperstone Safe?

Pepperstone can be considered safe for traders in Nigeria due to multiple regulatory licenses from top-tier regulators. It is regulated by the following financial authorities:

1. FCA: Pepperstone is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (UK) as an investment firm with the name Pepperstone Limited under the license (FRN) number 684312. FCA is a top-tier regulatory authority in the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.

   

2. ASIC: Pepperstone is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission as an investment firm with the name of Pepperstone Group Limited under license number 414530. ASIC is also a top-tier regulator based in the Australian jurisdiction.

   

3. CySEC: Pepperstone is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with the name of Pepperstone EU Limited under the license number 388/20. CySEC is a tier 2 regulatory authority that grants financial services offerings in the European Union.

   

Apart from the above-mentioned top regulators, Pepperstone is also regulated by various other financial regulatory authorities including DFSA, SCB, CMA, and BaFin.

Multiple regulatory licenses ensure the safety of traders as the activities of the broker are overlooked by renowned authorities. The broker was launched in 2010 and has received decent ratings and reviews from existing clients. It has offices in Melbourne, London, Dubai, Nairobi, Cyprus, and Dusseldorf. Although it does not have a local office in Nigeria.

Pepperstone uses an STP model for market execution and does not take part in any of the trades. The funds of the clients and the broker’s funds are kept in a separate AAA+ rated Australian bank, hence considered safe.

Compared to most of the available forex and CFD brokers in Nigeria, we found Pepperstone to be among the safest due to multiple top-tier regulatory licenses.

Pepperstone Fees

Pepperstone offers an attractive fee structure allowing traders to book better profits at little or no commission. The fees of every forex and CFD broker in Nigeria are comprised of trading and non-trading fees.
Trading Fees at Pepperstone

Spreads and commissions are the major components of trading fees as they are charged whenever a trade order is successfully executed. Pepperstone offers two types of live trading accounts and the trading fees differ for both account types.

1. Standard Account: It is a commission-free account type and no additional cost is incurred for trades apart from spreads. The spreads for all the available currency pairs are variable and start from 0.6 pips per lot. For EUR/USD as a benchmark, we found the average typical spread to be 1.12 pips per lot with the standard account.
2. Razor Account: It is a commission-based account type that charges very low spreads along with commission. The average Typical spread for EUR/USD for the Razor account is 0.12 pips per lot. The amount for the commission is different for the trading platform and base currency chosen by the trader with a razor account. Commission for all the base currencies with the cTrader trading platform is 7$ or 0.007% per standard lot. For MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms, the commission is different for the base currency chosen by the trader. For USD as a base currency, it is 7.53$ and 7$ respectively for MT4 and MT5 trading platforms per standard lot.

MT4 Razor Account Commission

MT5 Razor Account Commission

It must be noted that the commission is only charged for trading forex currency pairs. The CFD spreads are the same for both account types and are the only trading fee that is applicable on CFDs.

For a detailed analysis of the fees at Pepperstone, we executed a round trade of 1 standard lot of EUR/USD with standard and razor account types. The order was opened and closed instantly to check the actual spreads and commission.

With the standard account, we were charged 6.9$ for the round trade with no commission. With the Razor account type, we were charged 0.9$ as a spread for a standard lot and a commission of 7$ totaling 7.9$.

The following table compares the average typical spreads at PepperStone with the Standard and Razor account type for major trading instruments.

Swap Fee: This is the fee that is incurred to traders if they keep a position open overnight. The swap rates are calculated on the basis of a fixed formula that includes trade size, trade amount, exchange rate, position type, and leverage. Each instrument has different swap rates for long and short positions. Compared with other forex and CFD brokers in Nigeria, the swap rates at PepperStone is slightly higher.

Non Trading Fees

The non-trading fees at Pepperstone are much more attractive than many of the forex and CFD brokers in Nigeria. The broker does not charge any account opening or inactivity fees from the traders. The deposits and withdrawals for some of the methods are free of additional charges but bank transfers through local banks can incur additional charges.

The trading and non-trading fees at Pepperstone are quite attractive and cost-effective compared to many of the regulated forex and CFD brokers in Nigeria.

Trading Platforms

Pepperstone offers the most popular Metatrader as well as cTrader trading platform for various devices. Traders can choose the customizable MT4 and analytical MT5 trading platforms for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS devices. The cTrader trading platform is not available for macOS devices.

Any of the available trading platforms can be chosen with both the available account types at Pepperstone. Traders can choose a suitable trading platform for their respective devices which is a major advantage of choosing Pepperstone.

Customer Support

The customer support service is average at Pepperstone for the traders in Nigeria. We tried reaching the support executives through all the available methods and the following was our experience:

1. Live Chat: The live chat window available at the official website of Pepperstone is helpful and the queries are generally resolved within a minute. We raised different queries at different times of the day and our experience was decent. We received quick and relevant replies most of the time but during peak trading hours, we had to wait 5-10 minutes and replies weren’t very helpful.

   

2. Email Support: Queries can also be resolved at Pepperstone through email at [email protected] and the contact form available at their official website. They generally revert on the same day but can also take more than 24 hours on a working day.
3. No Local Phone Support: Pepperstone does not have a local Nigerian phone number for customer support. Although, traders in Nigeria can contact the support executives at the London office through an international toll-free number on +44 (800) 0465473.

The customer support services at Pepperstone are decent as many of the forex and CFD brokers in Nigeria provide better support service and also have a local phone number for customer support.

Account Types

Pepperstone offers two types of live trading accounts namely razor and standard account. Traders can also open multiple demo accounts where they can trade with virtual currencies to gain experience and learn basic trading strategies. Following is a detailed description of both account types at Pepperstone.

1. Standard: It is the ideal account type for new traders as the spreads are low and no commissions are involved.
2. Razor: This account type involves a commission for forex trading along with very low spreads on the currency pairs. It is considered ideal for high-volume and algorithmic traders.

The two account types at Pepperstone only differ based on trading fees for currency pairs. The spreads on CFDs are the same for both account types.

The minimum deposit as per margin requirement is 200$ for both account types. Each account gives access to all the available trading instruments and can be opened with 10 different base currencies including USD, EUR, and GBP. Traders in Nigeria who wish to trade with NGN as a base currency cannot be entertained at Pepperstone as it does not offer NGN-based trading accounts.

Both the account types at Pepperstone offer similar features and differ only on the basis of trading fees. We liked both the account types but many brokers in Nigeria offer NGN-based trading accounts and zero spread accounts which are not available at Pepperstone.

Pepperstone Research and Education

Pepperstone broadly offers multiple tools and features to assist traders in research and education. This allows traders to make better trading decisions and increase profit-making opportunities.

Pepperstone Research Tools

1. Market Analysis
   There are a lot of features that can assist in forex and CFD research. These tools are available under the market analysis tab on the Pepperstone website and app. Pepperstone exclusively organizes a weekly debate show named “The Trade-Off” in which the experts have a debate on financial markets.



2. Educational articles and videos
   Articles and videos covering market sentiments, economic news, predictions, price swings, etc are covered for multiple capital markets. These can help in the research but are also useful as educational content.
3. Smart Trader Tools
   Pepperstone grants access to smart trader tools for MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. It is a package containing expert advisory, risk management, strategy-optimizing tools, and indicators.
4. Autochartist and cTrader Automate
   Autochartist and cTrader Automated trading provide traders with trading signals based on preset patterns and expert advisory from Pepperstone. These signals can be used in research or trade orders can be placed directly according to the signals.



5. Algorithmic & API Trading
   Automated trading can also be done through an algorithm designed by experts or traders and through Application Programming Interface. These tools can be quite useful for professional and experienced traders. Pepperstone also supports VPS hosting where traders can also discuss the automated algorithm strategies with the experts at Pepperstone.

Pepperstone Educational Tools

There are separate guides for trading forex and CFDs along with videos that thoroughly explain the step-by-step procedure. These guides have various articles that explain the basics and terminologies used in forex and CFD trading.

Pepperstone regularly organizes webinars covering various topics associated with forex and CFD trading. The trading guide and FAQ segment comprehensively cover everything a trader must know before trading forex and CFDs in Nigeria.

We found Pepperstone to be among the best in Nigeria in terms of Research tools and features. Beginners, as well as experienced traders, can find useful tools at Pepperstone for research. The educational tools are just enough to enlighten the traders with the basics of the forex and CFD market.

Available Instruments

Pepperstone offers a broad variety of trading instruments and each instrument is available for both account types. Following is the description of all the available trading instruments at Pepperstone:

1. Forex: A total of 61 currency pairs are available at Pepperstone which includes 6 major, 9 minor, and 46 exotic currency pairs.
2. Index CFDs: Pepperstone offers CFDs on 14 major indices around the world. Each index CFD has different active trading hours.
3. Stock CFDs: Pepperstone allows traders to trade with top American stocks through CFDs. A total of 62 stock CFDs are available at Pepperstone.
4. Commodity CFDs: An impressive number of CFDs are available on various commodities at Pepperstone. The metal CFDs include 6 gold crosses, 3 silver crosses, and 1 each for platinum and palladium. The commodity CFDs also include energy with 3 oil and gas crosses and 9 soft commodities including Cocoa, Coffee, cotton, sugar, etc.
5. Cryptocurrency CFDs: Pepperstone offers 9 CFDs on major cryptocurrencies of the world with a maximum leverage of up to 1:20.

Overall, we appreciate the number of available instruments at Pepperstone and the availability of all the instruments with any of the account types chosen. This allows traders to have more options to make fruitful trades. Compared to most of the regulated brokers in Nigeria, Pepperstone has impressive offerings in terms of available trading instruments.

Deposit and Withdrawals

The deposits and withdrawals at Pepperstone can be done through multiple methods but local banks are not supported for transactions. There is no lower limit of deposit amount at Pepperstone but some methods have a lower cap.

Pepperstone Deposit Method

1. Credit/Debit Cards: The VISA and Mastercard can be used to deposit at Pepperstone from the personal area after opening the account. The payments are processed within a day with this method.

2. E-Wallets: Skrill, Neteller, Paypal, and a few other e-wallets can also be used as a method to deposit at Pepperstone. No commission is charged for this from the broker’s side but the wallet may incur additional costs.

3. International Bank Transfer: The wire transfers from any international bank can be used to deposit from Nigeria. This can be an expensive alternative as 20AUD or equivalent is charged as a commission for each transfer.

Pepperstone Withdrawal Method

Withdrawal requests made before 7:00 AEST are processed on the same day. Requests after this time are processed on the next working day. For withdrawals, the method needs to be the same as the deposit method.

No commission is charged by Pepperstone for withdrawals through E-wallets and credit/debit cards. Withdrawals through International bank wire transfer will incur 20AUD or equivalent as commission.

Compared to other regulated broker offerings services in Nigeria, Pepperstone may not be among the best for Nigerian traders. No local bank transfers are supported by Pepperstone while the number of transaction methods is also limited.

Pepperstone Bonuses

At the time of this review, Pepperstone does not have any bonus offerings for traders in Nigeria. However, they do offer a referral bonus in which the existing client, as well as the newly-referred client, can get up to $250 if the referred client makes a successful deposit of $10,000. The new client needs to enter the email id of the person who has referred Pepperstone in the account application under ‘How did you hear of us?’.

Many brokers in Nigeria offer attractive bonuses like deposit bonuses, demo trading competitions, etc. None of such offerings was found at Pepperstone for traders in Nigeria.

Do we Recommend Pepperstone?

Yes, Pepperstone is regulated by 3 major regulatory authorities and offers low spreads and commissions on a variety of trading instruments.

Traders who wish to trade with NGN as a base currency will not find Pepperstone useful as they do not offer Naira-based accounts. The unavailability of a local office, a local Nigerian phone number, and additional charges on local bank transfers could be major obstacles for traders in Nigeria.

The cost-effective spreads, a number of trading instruments, multiple trading platforms, and regulatory licenses from top-tier financial regulators are the reason why many traders choose Pepperstone around the world.

Frequently asked questions: PepperStone Nigeria