Forex trading in Argentina: market review and top online brokers

Argentina is one of the largest and most economically developed countries in Latin America. It is one of the so-called big three Latin American states (with Brazil and Mexico) with the most powerful economic potential, producing a significant part of the industrial output of the continent. The country benefits from rich natural resources, an export-oriented agricultural sector, a diversified industrial base, and a highly literate population.

Argentina’s economic performance has historically been quite uneven, with high economic growth alternating with severe recessions and income inequality. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Argentina had one of the highest per capita GDP levels in the world and the third-largest economy in the developing world. Today a high-income economy, Argentina maintains a relatively high quality of life and GDP per capita.

Looking in more detail, Argentina’s GDP is 383 USD billion, and the largest industries are agriculture, industry, tourism with the service sector, and natural resource extraction. Metals and minerals mined include borate, copper, lead, magnesium, sulfur, tungsten, uranium, zinc, silver, titanium, and gold, accounting for more than 3 billion US dollars per year. In terms of industry, the leading ones in terms of production value are food and beverage processing; automobiles and auto parts; by-products and biodiesel; chemicals and pharmaceuticals; steel and aluminum; and industrial and agricultural machinery; electronics and home appliances.

The service sector is the largest contributor to total GDP, accounting for over 60%. Argentina has a diversified service sector that includes well-developed social, corporate, financial, insurance, real estate, transport, communications, and tourism services.

The main trading partners of Argentina are traditionally the EU countries (especially Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain), Brazil, Chile, the USA, and Japan. Relations with Latin American countries are becoming increasingly important due to the deepening of integration processes (more than 1/3 of foreign trade turnover).

Moreover, Argentina has an open modern market economy and the banking sector forms the backbone of the country’s financial system. The Argentine banking system is a two-tier one: it includes the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (Banco Central de la República Argentina) and commercial banks.

As you can see, the country occupies a leading position in Latin America, but for more than 20 years Argentina has been through a series of economic struggles with annual inflation rarely dropping below 20% (in 2019 it rose above 50%). Due to high inflation, loans are issued at very high interest rates and are given for a short period of time. Many Argentines do not risk trusting banks with their savings and are looking for new ways to invest and make money, especially online. One of these rescues became the Forex market, with its free access and multiple ways to increase one’s income.

Forex trading and its regulations in Argentina

The Forex market is taking on more and more space in general online earning and Argentina is no escaping this reality: Argentines have gained access to trading all kinds of financial instruments. As it happened across the whole Latin American region, in a very short time Forex has become an alternative for those who want to start trading financial assets and protect their money from inflation.

Forex trading is legal in Argentina: there are several bodies that are responsible for the regulation and supervision of the financial sector and, in particular, the foreign exchange market. These include the Central Bank of Argentina, or BCRA, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Forex regulator is the National Securities Commission (Comisión Nacional de Valores or CNV). It performs control and supervisory functions and monitors the observance of the traders’ interests when conducting transactions in the securities market.

Argentines have the opportunity to safely enter the international Forex market with the help of brokers that have the licenses of the first category regulators such as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) or MiFID directives. These brokerage companies have an impeccable reputation and provide secure trading for residents of Argentina.

In general, if we talk about the opportunities and advantages of Forex trading in Argentina, we can highlight the potential profit from the movement of the Argentine peso, the safe trading environment provided by licensed brokers, and access to a wide range of trading instruments. Forex brokers have on their list both traditional and new assets, including currency pairs, CFDs, Cryptocurrencies, and spot metals. In addition, traders have the opportunity to trade with leverage, which gives them the opportunity to make a great income with small price movements, and Copy Trading: the most popular type of Social trading that allows beginners not to spend all their time analyzing the fast-moving Argentine market, but simply copy the trades of professionals. At the same time, experienced traders can profit from providing access to their deals. 

Popular online trading instruments in Argentina

Residents of Argentina have the opportunity to trade all possible financial instruments: the list of offers from international brokers is not limited to currency pairs or securities. Today, Argentines can diversify their portfolio to include relatively stable-priced commodities or explore a new but equally popular instrument like Cryptocurrencies. It all depends on the individual preferences of a particular trader and to help you build your portfolio, let’s take a look at the most popular instruments in Argentina.

Currency pairs trading in Argentina

Forex is one of the most liquid markets in the world that primarily involves trading in different currency pairs. The currency of the Republic of Argentina is the Argentine Peso (ARS). The most popular currency pairs with the Argentine peso are USD/ARS and EUR/ARS, which are characterized by higher volatility. In fact, residents are not required to trade only currency pairs with the peso but can choose among popular majors such as EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, and AUD/USD, as well as minors with larger spreads such as EUR/JPY, EUR/GBP, GBP/CHF, AUD/NZD. 

AvaTrade since 2006 has been successfully providing trading in more than 60 currency pairs; CFDs on almost all underlying assets, including commodities, stocks, and indices; more than 100 shares of American and European companies from major exchanges; Cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Litecoin; metals; energy commodities: exchange indices, as well as agricultural production.

The broker offers its clients trading using the MetaTrader 4 and 5 terminals, the AvaTradeGO app, and the AvaOptions platform. Installation of the MT4 and 5 terminals is available for various operating systems, as well as the web version of the MetaTrader. With AvaSocial copying trades of professionals through the ZuluTrade and DupliTrade services is available as well.

In addition, the broker has launched a new AvaProtect trading feature. It gives a trader in a losing position the opportunity to hedge against an unfavorable price move for a selected period of time, while losses are limited to the spread and commission paid, and profit potential is unlimited.

Commodities trading in Argentina

Commodity trading being the oldest form of financial instruments keeps up with the progress as well. With the advent of online commodity trading, private traders from Argentina have gained access to global markets with a relatively small amount of capital. Besides, this asset has become a popular inflation hedge and portfolio diversification asset. For many traders in Argentina, commodity trading is the preferred way to protect funds and reduce overall trading risks. 

The country has an abundance of uranium, manganese, lead-zinc, tungsten and iron, copper ores, and beryllium. In terms of the availability of fuel raw materials, Argentina is in third place among the countries of Latin America. In addition, it exports agricultural products such as soybean meal, corn, soybean oil, and wheat.

Also, many traders use gold for transactions, as this shiny metal is in the top 10 exports. All of these commodities are used by traders to make money without having to physically buy or sell them, instead, Forex provides access to futures contracts, commodity CFDs, stocks, ETFs, and more.

HF Markets – till recently has been known as HotForex in the region – stands out among brokers for its lucrative metal trading conditions, especially for Forex Gold Trading with its significantly low spreads, and an opportunity to trade it against both the USD and EUR for maximum efficiency. The broker is not limited to metals and also has 1200 trading instruments, including Forex, energies, indices, commodities, ETFs, stocks, and bonds.

Account types cover all requirements of traders considering the minimum deposit, leverage, and fixed spreads. Traders can choose from Micro, Premium, Fixed, VIP, and Zero Spread accounts. A demo account is available for training, there are no restrictions on the volume of the lot or the deposit – the client can choose the most suitable conditions for training.

PAMM accounts are also available for HF Markets clients, which allow them to receive passive income from trading without any participation from the investor – the manager is responsible for choosing a strategy, making deals, calculating trading risks, and other nuances.

What is important to mention is that HF Markets offers 100% Supercharged and 100% Credit Bonuses with very favorable conditions.

CFD trading in Argentina

Trading with CFDs is not only convenient but also actively used by Forex market participants in Argentina, allowing multiple transactions for the purchase and sale of securities and services with small capital. 

CFDs carry multiple benefits. Firstly, a trader has the opportunity to receive leverage that can exceed his initial funds several times. Secondly, CFD trading allows you to work with a wide range of financial instruments, from currency pairs to stocks. And it is also worth mentioning the possibility of hedging risks with the help of CFDs.

Plus500 is a broker that will help you dive into the world of CFDs on stocks, indices, currencies, and Cryptocurrencies (availability subject to regulations) with no commissions and tight spreads. If you want to try other assets, this is also not a problem. The broker has 2800+ financial instruments that can be traded on a real account, and there is always an unlimited demo account for beginners.

Trading takes place on the proprietary Plus500 terminal, available as a web terminal for PCs and laptops and as a mobile app for Android and iOS, so you can always stay up to date with all the events.

Other nice features of the broker include leverage on all trading instruments, as well as its impeccable license base. For example, the broker is regulated by CySEC, FCA, ASIC, and MAS, which are considered top regulators of international brokers.

OANDA offers a variety of CFDs on indices, commodities, and bonds. The list of instruments is not limited to CFDs and provides traders with the opportunity to choose among currency pairs, commodities, indices, Cryptos, metals, and bonds with competitive spreads across its full range of more than 100 instruments in total that can be traded on three account types: demo, Standard and Advanced Trader, which makes the broker a fine fit for both new and seasoned trades. Moreover, it requires no minimum deposit to open an account with OANDA.

Client finances’ are always protected because the company complies with the rules of regulators from different regions of the world: CFTC and NFA (USA), MAS (Singapore), IIROC (Canada), FCA (UK), FSA, FFAJ and KLFB (Japan).

Besides, traders who top up their accounts get a welcome bonus of up to $1000.

Cryptocurrency trading in Argentina

Interest in Cryptocurrencies has grown significantly in Argentina in recent years, as Cryptocurrencies can be used as payment to retailers, as protection from the devaluation of the local currency, and as a good source of income. In addition to conventional Cryptos such as BTC or ETH, stablecoins (USDT, USDC, etc.) are popular in Argentina.

The demand for Cryptocurrencies is increasing along with the development of the corresponding infrastructure as well. So, if at the beginning of 2019, there were only 8 crypto ATMs in Buenos Aires, by now their number has already grown to dozens.

Argentina is one of the few countries in the world where the purchase and sale of Cryptocurrencies are actively developing, as well as settlements with them using SMS, that is, without the need to have mandatory access to the Internet. In turn, the Argentine government is loyal to this type of financial instrument and defines it as a commodity in accordance with the country’s Civil Code, and since December 2017, income that arises from transactions with this commodity is subject to income tax in accordance with standard practice.

In general, Argentines really fell in love with Cryptos and intend to trade them for profit. That is why international brokers are actively entering the country to provide residents with access to this asset which brings a lot of benefits to traders. So brokers have been working for a long time on the Crypto market and they are client-oriented: there is a convenient platform for trading, pleasant conditions for depositing/withdrawing funds, as well as a high level of security, quick and easy registration, and high-quality customer support.

AvaTrade is a company that provides Cryptocurrencies for trading on safe terms as it follows all the requirements of such well-known regulators as MiFID, ASIC, Japan FSA, and FFA, FSB, IIROC, and FSCA.

The broker provides round-the-clock access to Cryptos, and there are no commissions and bank fees for transactions with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Besides, you don’t need to buy Cryptocurrency, profit occurs solely on changes in its price.

One of the best things about AvaTrade is the number of trading platforms that the broker provides. It really doesn’t matter if you are a trading pro, intermediate, or beginner – there is something special for everyone. Clients can trade using the familiar Metatrader 4 and 5 terminals, the AvaTradeGO app, and the AvaOptions platform. Installation of the MT4 terminal is available for various operating systems, as well as the web version of the MetaTrader. For fans of social trading, copying trades of experienced users through the ZuluTrade and DupliTrade services are available as well.

Forex trading with VPS in Argentina

Every day, the opportunities for efficient and comfortable Forex trading are expanding, as is the list of technical tools available to beginners and experts. One of these can be mentioned as a VPS server. VPS is a remote server that is used to host Forex trading software, trading advisors and technical indicators to ensure continuous 24/7 trading even if the trader’s local computer is down. In this way, it is possible to automate the trading process and make it less costly in terms of finances, time, and effort.

The principle of operation of VPS is quite simple. The main component is a physical server with a central processor, a hard drive, RAM, and an operating system. One physical server using special software is divided into several virtual mini-servers. For a small fee, the user receives a virtual computer and part of its capacity, as well as all the features available to the owner of a server of a dedicated type. After completing a simple connection procedure, the trader gets access to the familiar remote desktop, which is no different from the one on the home computer. The only distinction is that all user actions are first sent to the server for processing.

VPS Forex is especially relevant for those who want to conduct automated trading. Without a server, for this you need, if not to be constantly near the desktop, then at least keep the computer turned on around the clock, be sure of the reliability of the Internet connection, the availability of electricity, which is not always possible in real life. In general, the VPS server is an effective tool for increasing productivity. Initially, this technology was created for web developers, but today it is an indispensable tool for Forex traders. Argentines can get the opportunity to enjoy all the advantages of a VPS server from a trusted broker without having to look for third-party rental services, which makes the task of finding suitable servers quite simple.

XM Group is one of the few brokers providing a VPS server that supports the program for automatic trading around the clock.

Traders enjoy all sorts of instruments including currency pairs, commodities, stocks, and CFDs, in total more than 1000. After registration, clients can choose the type of account to trade between Micro, Standard, XM Ultra Low, and Shares. In the course of work, it is possible to register additional accounts and freely transfer money between them. Moreover, the company meets newcomers to the financial and currency markets by offering to use the opportunity to open a free demo account to start learning and testing trading strategies.

With XM traders access the market through MT4 and MT5 terminals. You can use them on various devices such as PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Android Tablet.

Another undoubted advantage of the XM Forex broker is quite a large number of various bonuses, such as a 100% entry bonus of up to $5000, client referral and occasional bonuses, and a well-thought-out affiliate program.

Top Forex brokers in Argentina

The Forex market in Argentina is expanding not only with the number of new traders but also with many international brokers offering different conditions. Choosing a good intermediate can take you hours of analyzing and comparing different licenses, trading conditions, and bonus offers. In order for you to start trading and make a profit without delay, we have prepared for you a list of reliable brokers trusted by millions of clients around the world.

AvaTrade in Argentina

AvaTrade has been a well-known broker since 2006 with an impressive license base including MiFID, ASIC, Japan FSA and FFA, FSB, IIROC, and FSCA. Having been on the market for quite a long time, the company understands the importance of the ability to diversify traders’ portfolios and therefore has 1250 instruments, including both the usual currency pairs and Cryptocurrencies, stocks, commodities, and Indices.

The broker’s working terminals meet all the requirements of both demanding traders and newcomers to the financial market. Clients can trade using the familiar Metatrader 4 and 5 terminals, the AvaTradeGO app, and the AvaOptions platform. Installation of the MT4 terminal is available for various operating systems, as well as the web version of the Metatrader. For fans of social trading, copying trades of experienced users through the ZuluTrade and DupliTrade services is available as well.

Other benefits of the broker include tight fixed and floating spreads, large sections of educational materials, and a free demo account to test platforms with a balance of 100 thousand virtual dollars.

OANDA in Argentina

OANDA is a time-tested Forex broker that in 2001 offered private traders its own trading terminal, which opened up access to trading in all popular instruments including currency pairs, indices, commodities, bonds, and metals. The company is a member of the following regulators IIROC, FCA, ASIC, and IE Singapore. Besides, the broker holds licenses by such authoritative regulations around the world as FSA, ASIC, and IIROC.

OANDA offers three account types: demo, Standard, and Advanced Trader, which makes the broker a fine fit for both new and seasoned trades. And you can work using its own platform and popular MT4 and MT5 terminals. There are web versions of terminals for trading in the browser, as well as versions for mobile operating systems.

Besides, traders who’ll top up their accounts get a welcome bonus of up to $1000.

Plus500 in Argentina

Plus500 is a broker licensed by top regulators CySEC, FCA, ASIC, and MAS. In the broker’s list of offers, CFDs on stocks, indices, currencies, and Cryptocurrencies (availability subject to regulations). In addition to contracts for difference, traders can work with all known trading instruments, more than two thousand in total.

The company tries to give traders as much helpful information as possible and provides several effective analytical tools for monitoring the market: economic calendar, risk management, and notifications. In addition, a trader guide and e-book are available, where you can find comprehensive explanations about platform features.

In general, if we talk about the advantages of this broker, then Plus500 is available in more than 50 countries and more than 30 languages, all trading instruments are leveraged, as well as there are 0 fees for opening/closing trades.

HF Markets in Argentina

HF Markets -before rebranding known as HotForex – is an excellent choice for those who want to trade metals, and in particular Forex Gold trading. The broker sets low spreads and gives an opportunity to trade it against both the USD and EUR for maximum efficiency. In addition to metals, traders can find another 1200 instruments, including Forex, energies, indices, commodities, ETFs, stocks, and bonds.

The broker has a lot of trading accounts (Micro, Premium, Fixed, VIP, and Zero Spread), but they differ in the minimum deposit, leverage, and spreads. A demo account is always available for beginners to test their strategies and try different financial instruments. In addition, the company introduced PAMM accounts. They will be useful if you want to become an investor or manager in Forex.

As for working platforms, there are the well-known terminals MT4 and MT5 which are available on desktop, web, and mobile versions for Windows, iOS, MacOS, and Android. Also, a huge advantage will be the presence of a VPS service and HFcopy trading platform. The latter will allow beginners to succeed following the professionals, and the experienced traders get paid for it.

Worth mentioning is also a 100% Supercharged and 100% Credit Bonus for all clients with very favorable conditions.

XM Group in Argentina

XM Group is a broker not only with a wide range of trading instruments, in total more than 1000, but different types of Micro, Standard, XM Ultra Low, and Shares accounts. The Micro and Standard accounts are identical, with the only difference being that the first one is traded in micro lots, so it is ideal as a start for beginners. A standard account is an option for advanced traders. But in the XM Ultra Low account, the spreads are lower – as low as 0.6 pips. Shares account is suitable for trading shares of global companies.

MT4 and MT5 terminals can be used on various devices such as PC, Macs, iPhones, iPad, Android, and Android tablets. The company’s technical support works around the clock 5 days a week, you can ask your questions in any of the 20 languages ​​listed on the website.

Another important thing to mention is that XM gives its clients a wide variety of bonuses such as a 100% entry bonus of up to $5000, client referral, and occasional bonuses.

As you can see, the distinguishing features of the aforementioned brokers are their impeccable license base, convenient platforms, as well as many special offers for each client. What is important to mention is that you don’t have to choose only one broker. If you register and verify an account with several Forex brokers, you can not only employ all possible Forex bonuses but also test different trading platforms and become a true professional in a short time.