FP Markets Review: Does IRESS Make It More Than Another Raw Account?
We traded FP Markets' Raw account on MT5 and cTrader, checked its $3-per-side commission against IC Markets and Pepperstone, and looked at what the IRESS platform adds for anyone who also wants direct market access to shares.
Best for: Traders who want raw forex pricing and direct market access to shares on one login
FP Markets' Raw account charges $3 per side, a dollar cheaper per round turn than IC Markets' MT4 and MT5 pricing, and independent spread tests put it in the same tight tier as IC Markets and Pepperstone. What actually separates it is IRESS, a direct market access platform into shares across nine exchanges that neither of those rivals offers. A raw-spread scalper who only trades forex should still price all three; a trader who wants shares alongside currency pairs has a real reason to pick FP Markets first.
Price $100 minimum depositMaker First Prudential Marketsfpmarkets.com
FP Markets gets pitched as a third option next to IC Markets and Pepperstone, the two raw-spread brokers most of our readers ask about first. We opened a Raw account, ran it through MT5 and cTrader, and then looked at the one thing neither of those two rivals actually offers: IRESS, a direct market access platform for shares.
Pricing against the two brokers everyone compares it to
Raw account commission is $3 per side on MT4, MT5 and cTrader, which totals $6 on a round-turn lot. That is a dollar cheaper than IC Markets' MT4/MT5 commission of $3.50 per side, $7 round turn, though it lands roughly level with IC Markets' own cTrader pricing of $3 per side. Independent testing we cross-checked put FP Markets' average EUR/USD spread on Raw somewhere between 0.05 and 0.1 pips, tight enough to sit in the same bracket as IC Markets and Pepperstone rather than trailing them.
None of that makes FP Markets an obvious winner on cost alone. The three brokers trade blows depending on the exact pair, the time of day and which platform you pick, and a scalper running serious volume should still benchmark live spreads on all three before committing capital. What FP Markets wins outright is the $6 round turn against IC Markets' $7 on MetaTrader, a saving that adds up fast for anyone trading dozens of lots a week.
Run the numbers on a busy week and the gap stops being trivial. A trader placing 40 standard lots pays $240 in commission on FP Markets' Raw account against $280 on IC Markets' MT4/MT5 tier, a $40 difference before spread is even counted. cTrader closes that gap almost entirely, since FP Markets prices its cTrader Raw commission at the same $3 per side as MT4 and MT5, matching rather than beating IC Markets' own cTrader rate. The lesson for a cost-driven trader is to pick the platform first and the broker second: the commission advantage lives on MetaTrader, not cTrader.
