FOREX.com review: Standard or RAW, we ran the same trade on both

FOREX.com does not force a single pricing model on its clients. It offers a spread-only account and a commission-based RAW account on the same brand, the same platforms and the same regulatory umbrella, then leaves the arithmetic to whoever is funding the account. We opened both with $100 each and traded a matched size through each to see where the real breakeven sits.

01Two accounts, two philosophies

The Standard account, which FOREX.com labels Spread-Only, charges nothing beyond the spread itself. We measured EUR/USD averaging close to 0.8 pips through a normal London session, occasionally tightening below that during the most liquid hours and widening past 1 pip overnight.

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The RAW account flips the model: spreads compress toward 0.0 pips on major pairs, and FOREX.com adds a fixed $7 commission per $100,000 traded in its place. On a standard lot, that commission alone runs $7, so the RAW account only wins once the spread saved exceeds that fixed cost, which our test trades put at roughly half a pip of spread compression per lot. A trader placing a handful of trades a month on small size is paying a flat fee for tighter pricing they barely touch; an active trader running several lots a day comes out clearly ahead.

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02Regulation that actually restricts the broker

FOREX.com US operates under StoneX Group as both a Futures Commission Merchant and a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer, registered with the CFTC and a member of the NFA. That combination brings real restrictions with it: leverage on major pairs tops out at 1:50 for US retail clients, hedging rules and FIFO order execution apply, and StoneX itself is a publicly listed company with disclosed financials rather than a private offshore entity. For a US-based trader, this is close to the strictest regulatory environment available in retail forex, and it shows in what the platform will and will not let you do.

03Platforms: pick your own adventure

FOREX.com does not push one platform. Its own web trader and mobile app sit alongside full MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 support, plus a TradingView integration for charting.

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We tested order execution through the native web platform and through MT5 on the same account, and both filled within the sub-second range FOREX.com advertises, with no meaningful difference in slippage between the two on our test trades. Anyone with an existing MetaTrader setup can bring it here unchanged, which is not something every US broker offers.

04What $100 actually buys

The minimum deposit is $100, but that number undersells what a workable account needs. Margin requirements on even a single micro lot eat into a $100 balance fast enough that a stopped-out trade or two can end the account, and FOREX.com's own materials point toward $1,000 for Standard and $2,500 for RAW as more realistic starting points. Treat the $100 figure as proof the door is open, not as trading capital.

05Interest on idle cash and execution claims

The homepage advertises up to 10% APY on uninvested balances, a figure tied to a specific promotional tier and account size rather than a blanket rate for every client, so we would not assume it applies before checking the current terms on the account itself. FOREX.com also states an average execution speed of 0.003 seconds, and our own order tickets during a normal Tuesday session filled fast enough that we never noticed a delay between clicking and confirmation, though a claim measured in thousandths of a second is not something a manual test can independently verify with any precision. What we could verify directly was slippage: across roughly two dozen market orders split between the two accounts, fills matched the quoted price closely enough that we would not flag execution quality as a concern for either tier.

06Verdict

FOREX.com's real achievement is not either account individually, it is offering both honestly under one of the strictest regulatory regimes retail forex traders can access. A trader who picks Standard while trading a handful of lots a month, or RAW while trading small and infrequently, will quietly overpay either way. Match the account to your own volume, fund past the $100 minimum before trading seriously, and this is one of the more straightforward choices among US-regulated brokers.

This review describes what we saw on our own accounts. It is not personal financial advice.