FP Markets Regulation & safety: the CMA card finally lands
For years the knock on FP Markets in Kenya was simple: great pricing, no local licence. That changed - FP Markets Ltd now sits on the CMA licensee register under Licence No. 193, and we verified it ourselves before scoring. Layer that on ASIC and CySEC and you get the strongest regulatory stack of any ECN forex broker serving Kenyan traders.
Kenya
Capital Markets Authority (CMA)
FP Markets Ltd - Nairobi · Licence No. 193
Local incorporation means Kenyan disputes go through the CMA framework and the Capital Markets Tribunal. We verified FP Markets on the CMA licensee register before scoring.
Verify on registerAustralia
ASIC - Australian Securities & Investments Commission
First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd · AFSL 286354
One of the world's two hardest licences to hold. Client money sits in segregated trust accounts at AA-rated banks.
Verify on registerEuropean Union
CySEC (Cyprus) - MiFID-passported
First Prudential Markets Ltd · Licence 371/18
Gives EU clients access to the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF) - cover up to €20,000 per client.
Verify on registerSouth Africa
FSCA - Financial Sector Conduct Authority
FP Markets (Pty) Ltd · FSP 50926
Regional heavyweight licence; the FSCA has been aggressively policing unlicensed brokers serving East Africa.
Verify on registerSeychelles
FSA Seychelles - Securities Dealer
First Prudential Markets (Seychelles) Ltd · SD130
The entity most Kenyan traders are onboarded under for 1:500 leverage. Offshore - but backed by the group's tier-1 track record since 2005.
Verify on registerHonest take: most Kenyan traders are onboarded under the FSA Seychelles entity (SD130) to access 1:500 leverage - offshore supervision, but the group's 20-year ASIC record, segregated AA-bank accounts and negative balance protection apply across entities. If maximum safety is your priority, ask support to book you under the Kenya or Australia entity instead. Client funds are never used for the firm's own trading.
Accounts, spreads & the true all-in cost
Two live accounts, one demo. The Raw ECN account is where FP Markets earns its 'Best Value' reputation - 0.0-pip spreads plus a flat $6 round-turn commission. Below is our live spread log from six weeks on a funded Raw account, London session averages, not marketing best-cases.
| Instrument | Standard avg | Raw avg | Commission* | Raw all-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 1.17 | 0.03 | $0.60 | 0.63 pips |
| GBP/USD | 1.38 | 0.18 | $0.60 | 0.78 pips |
| USD/JPY | 1.31 | 0.08 | $0.60 | 0.68 pips |
| USD/KES* | 420 | 420 | - | n/a - see note |
| XAU/USD (Gold) | 1.85 | 0.11 | $0.60 | 0.71 pips |
| US500 | 0.9 | 0.4 | - | 0.4 pips |
| BTC/USD | 38 | 27 | - | 27 pips |
Your true monthly trading cost
Estimated monthly cost
$252 ≈ KES 32,508
$6.30 per lot per round turn. Switching to Standard would cost $468 - Raw saves you $216/mo.
"No commission" is never free - why Raw wins at every size
Every new trader hits this fork: "Standard has no commission, so it must be cheaper." It isn't. The commission isn't gone - it's hiding inside a fatter spread, charged invisibly on every single trade. Here is the whole trick, in plain shillings.
Spread anatomy · 1 lot, round turn, same scale
The gold block is the only fee Raw charges - and it's already smaller than Standard's markup alone. During news spikes Standard's red block can double; the $6 commission never moves.
One trade, two receipts
Position size: 0.10 lots · EUR/USD
You keep $0.54 ≈ KES 70
EUR/USD · one round turn · 0.10 lots
= 1.17 pips effective
EUR/USD · one round turn · 0.10 lots
= 0.63 pips effective
Drag the slider - the break-even point doesn't exist. Because the $6 commission scales linearly, the Raw Account is cheaper at every size, even 0.01 micro-lots ($0.06 commission vs $0.12 spread cost).
Learn the one number that matters: the pip
On EUR/USD, 1 pip = $10 per standard lot. At 0.10 lots - the size most Kenyan beginners start with - one pip is $1 (≈KES 129). Every pricing comparison on this page, and every broker ad you'll ever see, reduces to pips.
Understand how 'zero commission' gets funded
The Standard account shows no commission line because the fee is melted into a 1.17-pip spread: the moment you click buy, your position sits 1.17 pips underwater. No line item, no receipt, no pain signal - which is exactly why forex traders overpay for years without noticing.
Watch Raw itemise the exact same trade
Raw hands you the near-wholesale spread (0.03 pips in our live log) and charges a flat, visible $6 commission per lot, round turn. Total: 0.63 pips equivalent - 46% less than Standard. And because the $6 scales linearly with size, Raw stays cheaper at every position size, down to 0.01 micro-lots.
Fair is fair - when the Standard Account still makes sense
- You place fewer than ~5 trades a month at micro sizes and you genuinely value a statement with no commission lines.
- A simple EA or signal service you rely on assumes commission-free pricing and would mis-report its P&L otherwise (rare, but it exists).
- Seeing a $6 debit per trade makes you think twice before overtrading. Behaviour beats arithmetic if it saves you from yourself.
For everyone else - including copy traders, whose returns improve automatically when the underlying cost drops - Raw is the default. FP Markets prices it that way too: Raw's minimum is $50, which is $50 lower than Standard's $100.
The cost of not switching
≈KES 33,400
per year, left in the spread at 0.10 lots × 40 trades/month - the exact maths in the receipts above, compounded.
Your size may differ; the 46% doesn't. Every 100 round turns at Standard pricing quietly fund someone else's bonus - usually the broker's.
Open the Raw account the smart way
- 1 · Register on the en-KE portal (national ID, ~5 min)
- 2 · Choose "Raw ECN" at the account-type step
- 3 · Fund from $50 via M-Pesa - live in ~11 min
CMA Licence No.193 · M-Pesa & card funding · 74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money · start on the free demo if unsure
- No inactivity fee, no account-keeping fee - rare at this price point.
- Swap-free (Islamic) accounts available on request for all account types.
- Overnight swap example: EUR/USD long ≈ −$7.10/lot; gold ≈ −$16/lot (Jan 2026).
- Demo account ships with $100,000 virtual funds on MT4, MT5 and cTrader.
5 trading platforms, one honest pecking order
FP Markets is unapologetically a MetaTrader house - and in 2026 it added TradingView execution, which closes our biggest old complaint. Here's the trading platforms available on FP Markets, ranked by who each one is really for.
MetaTrader 4 & 5
The backbone. 764 symbols on MT5, full EA/algorithmic trading, depth-of-market, one-click trading and the Trader Toolbox (FX Blue add-ons + Autochartist). FP Markets won Best-in-Class for MetaTrader at the 2026 ForexBrokers.com awards - our testing agrees.
- Expert Advisors & copy-trading via MT signals
- TradeMedic AI analytics (new 2026)
- Free VPS on qualifying volume/balance
cTrader
Level-II pricing, DOM trading, advanced order types and the cleanest charting of the lot. Same Raw pricing as MetaTrader - our scalpers preferred cTrader's fill ladder during London open.
- Level II depth of market
- cTrader Automate (C#) for algos
- Detachable, multi-screen workspaces
TradingView
The 2026 headline: FP Markets now plugs straight into TradingView, so you can execute on your existing charts - 400+ indicators, Pine Script alerts and social ideas - without re-keying orders.
- Direct execution from TV charts
- 100k+ community indicators & scripts
- No extra platform fee
FP Markets app & WebTrader
The proprietary app handles account management, funding (M-Pesa lives here) and simple trades. Honest caveat: no drawing tools, no indicators - serious charting belongs on MT5 or TradingView mobile.
- M-Pesa deposits & withdrawals
- Account docs & KYC onboarding
- Economic calendar & alerts
IRESS suite
ViewPoint delivers true DMA share trading - 10,000+ ASX/US/UK/EU stocks with full depth of book. Excellent, but platform and data fees only justify it above ~AUD 25k balances or heavy commission spend.
- 10,000+ real-share CFDs, DMA pricing
- ViewPoint: AUD 25,000 minimum
- Fees waived above AUD 150 comm./mo
Copy trading included: FP Markets' Social Trading portal plus Myfxbook AutoTrade - mirror verified strategies from your client portal, no extra fee.
Explore the platforms