Which brokers are best for day trading?
Verdict
- Pepperstone is our first choice for day trading: a published Razor average of 0.1 pips on EUR/USD, a $3.00-per-side commission on cTrader, index CFDs with no commission and more than 100 US share CFDs tradable 24/5.
- Closing positions before the daily rollover avoids swap charges, so for a day trader the round-turn cost per trade is the number that matters.
- On five round-turn lots of EUR/USD a day, Pepperstone's published prices work out at about $35 on cTrader and $40 on MT5, against $55 on the commission-free Standard account.
- Capital.com and XS are our second and third picks; XS Elite matches Pepperstone's cTrader cost on EUR/USD but needs a $500 deposit.
Day traders open and close within the session, so swap barely matters and the cost of each round turn decides most of the result. We rank brokers on that cost, on execution, and on the markets you can trade intraday from the UAE.
Pepperstone is our day-trading pick
Three published numbers carry the case. Razor pricing averages 0.1 pips on EUR/USD; commission is $3.00 per side on cTrader and $3.50 on MT5 or TradingView. Pepperstone says orders fill from 50 milliseconds with a 99.32% fill rate and no dealer intervention, based on trades from January to March 2026. And index CFDs carry no commission at all, with US500 published at 0.4 points and NAS100 at 1 point on average (Australian page, August 2026 data).
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Daily cost of a busy session
Five round-turn standard lots of EUR/USD in a day, at $10 a pip and each firm's published average spread:
| Account | Per round turn | Five trades |
|---|---|---|
| Pepperstone Razor, cTrader | $1 spread + $6 = $7 | $35 |
| Pepperstone Razor, MT5/TradingView | $1 spread + $7 = $8 | $40 |
| Pepperstone Standard | $11, no commission | $55 |
| XS Elite | $1 spread + $6 = $7 | $35 |
| FP Markets Raw | $1.10 spread + $6 = $7.10 | $35.50 |
Markets that suit intraday trading at Pepperstone
- Major indices with no commission: GER40 averages 1 point on Razor, UK100 1.5 and US30 2 (Australian index-fees page).
- US shares outside regular hours: more than 100 share CFDs trade 24/5 through the "-24" suffix, for example AAPL.US-24.
- Gold: published averages of 0.12 on Razor and 0.19 on Standard.
- Retail leverage on the UAE site: up to 1:200 on major FX, major indices and gold, which magnifies intraday swings both ways.
When Capital.com or XS is the better day-trading account
Capital.com lets you switch on hedging mode and run expert advisors, and its Dubai company holds a UAE CMA licence; our data has no published EUR/USD average for it, so compare its live spread before trading size. XS Elite costs the same $7 a lot as Pepperstone's cTrader account on EUR/USD, but it runs on MT4 and MT5 only and needs $500 to open. Pepperstone's own limits: it publishes no guaranteed stop-loss order on the sites we checked, so a stop can slip in a fast market.
Sources
Prices are the brokers' published averages; your fills can differ.
Do day traders pay swap at Pepperstone?
Only on positions still open at the daily rollover. A position opened and closed within the session pays the spread and, on Razor, the commission.
Is cTrader cheaper than MT5 at Pepperstone?
On FX, yes: $3.00 per side on cTrader against $3.50 on MT5. On gold both charge $3.50 per side.
Can I day trade US stocks outside New York hours?
Pepperstone offers more than 100 US share CFDs 24/5 under a "-24" suffix. Spreads outside regular hours may be wider; check the live quote.
Risk warning: CFDs are complex, leveraged products with a high risk of rapid losses. This article is not investment advice. Figures are broker-published and can change without notice.