A complete guide to top brokers in South Korea

South Korea is a country in East Asia located in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, with a large border with the neighboring (and quite hostile) North Korea. The country’s territory reaches 100, 363 square kilometers, and almost half of the South Korean population lives in Seoul, the world’s fifth-largest metropolitan area.

The economic growth of South Korea helps the financial sector within the country expand. More and more people are interested in financial trading each year. In addition to economic growth, advancements in technology and internet also plays a huge role in popularizing trading. Nowadays, both active traders and passive investors have easy access to trading various asset classes such as: currency pairs, indices, commodities, bonds, futures, cryptocurrencies, and stocks.

In this guide, we will take a closer look at how the FX market is regulated in the South Korea, provide you with tips on how to select the best Forex broker in South Korea, and discover the regulatory framework within the country.  Successful trading requires careful selection of brokers, having a profitable strategy, risk and emotional management and hard work.

List of top brokers in South Korea

Choosing the right broker is of utmost importance in financial trading. Regardless of whether you are an experienced trader, or a beginner, finding a broker that best fits your needs in never easy. The market is flooded with vast amounts of CFD (Contracts for Difference) and Forex brokers that compete with each other by offering unique trading conditions.

To save you time and effort, we have reviewed multiple financial service providers and made a top brokers list for the residents of South Korea. You can learn more about each broker by clicking on the “READ REVIEW” button, or by clicking on the broker logo below.

When selecting a broker, there are a number of important things to consider, such as regulations, tradable assets, trading, fees, platforms, deposit and leverage requirements.

How is the South Korean FX market regulated?

Currency trading in South Korea is regulated by the Financial Service Commission (FSC), and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). Residents of South Korea can open trading accounts with locally regulated Forex brokers, or they can register with internationally regulated ones. While it is also perfectly legal to trade with non-regulated brokers, it is recommended to only trade with licensed brokers for your safety.

The FSC is responsible for overseeing and supervising not only FX trading, but financial trading and investing in general. The regulator implements the following policies:

• Forex brokers and dealers that operate in South Korea need to obtain the license from the FSC. They are required to meet predetermined requirements that include: capital adequacy, risk management, and internal control.
• The FSC provides policies aimed at investor protection. The regulator provides educational material, and preventive measures of fraudulent and unfair practices.
• The financial regulator supervises and monitors forex broker and dealers to ensure compliance with regulations. It conducts regular inspections, assessments, and audits to spot any misconduct from the brokers.

Forex trading in South Korea is well-regulated, and the participants of the market are protected. Nevertheless, it does not mean the South Korean Forex market is completely free of scams. In order to ensure that your funds are safe, we recommend that you only join the regulated Forex brokers with an official license from a reputable regulatory authority.

When it comes to the international Forex brokers operating in South Korea, there is no danger in joining one, as long as they are regulated by reputable financial bodies, such as FCA(Financial Conduct Authority) in the UK, ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission), etc.

How can you become a Forex trader in South Korea?

As in many other countries, the main legal requirement that you, as an aspiring Forex trader, need to meet is being aged 18 or older. This regulation is put in place in order to prevent minors from entering what can potentially become a risky financial enterprise. There are very low barriers to entry, as most brokers have very low or nonexistent minimum initial deposit requirements. Registration and account opening is mostly fully digital and user-friendly process.

However, technicalities are the least that you need to worry about. Trading in financial markets profitably is highly challenging, and you need to be well-prepared to grow your trading account gradually.  Beginner traders have a long way to go to become professionals. First, they need to learn trading terminology, use of trading platforms, develop and test trading strategies and build strong discipline to follow their rules and make money. Keep in mind that financial trading is not a steady source of income, there will be periods when your strategies do not bring profits, the key to success is learning how to get through drawdown periods by implementing risk management strategies.

What are the best online trading platforms in South Korea?

Brokers offer a wide range of trading platforms to their clients. Among them, the most popular ones are: MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), cTrader, and TradingView. Some brokers will offer their own, custom-made platforms. A trading platform is one of the most important components of your future success as a Forex trader, as it will define both the efficiency of your order execution and the exposure to various trading instruments.

MetaTrader platforms are highly reliable, which is why they are so popular among traders. It should be mentioned that MT4 is preferred by solely currency traders, as it doesn’t support trading bonds, futures, and stocks, while MT5 is a multi asset platform. cTrader is also mainly used for trading currencies. The cTrader software is modern looking and super user-friendly. These platforms enable traders to automate their trading using algorithms. Traders can build their own algorithms themselves, or purchase the trading robots on market.

What are the pros and cons of trading Forex in South Korea?

Financial trading offers many opportunities to traders, however, it can also be the source of some devastating financial losses. Below, you will find the list of the main advantages and disadvantages of starting the trading journey in South Korea.

Pros: 

• Financial trading can become an additional source of income for you and your family.
• Retail trading offers flexibility to trade work from home and to work when you want to work. The only boss retail traders have is themselves.
• The local national economy is highly advanced, and there are many career opportunities for traders in the country. In addition, successful traders can easily find investors and build mutual funds.

Cons: 

• Financial trading carries various risks. Traders need to be able to overcome human emotions, manage their risks, and have profitable strategies.
• Trading conditions often change, and those who are not prepared to keep working and advancing their trading strategies, will fall behind.

Summary

While FX trading in South Korea is regulated, there is little availability of the locally regulated brokers. Hence, we recommend getting started with a multi-regulated brokers like XM in order to trade FX safely from South Korea. While such brokers as XM are not regulated locally, they hold numerous licenses from other jurisdictions and are having great reputation worldwide. Globally licensed brokers are trustworthy and often offer better trading conditions than local financial brokers.

FAQs on a complete guide to top brokers in South Korea