Forex, or FX, involves exchanging one currency for another at an exchange rate. Our FX offering includes spot FX (provided as CFDs), swaps, forwards, and FX options.
FX trading and FX derivatives involve significant risk. Exchange rates can move quickly, losses can be substantial, and when trading on margin your losses can exceed your initial deposit. For forwards and swaps (OTC derivatives), you may also face counterparty risk and liquidity/close-out risk. For FX options, buyers can lose the full premium (plus fees), while sellers can face substantial losses that may be unlimited in some cases.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 62% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Read more about forex trading risks.
| Popular pairs | Minimum spread | Initial margin* |
|---|---|---|
 EURUSD | 1 pip | 3.33% |
 GBPUSD | 1.1 pips | 4% |
 USDJPY | 1.2 pips | 4% |
| Popular pairs | Minimum spread | Initial margin* |
|---|---|---|
 BTCUSD | USD 308 | 50% |
 ETHUSD | USD 17.60 | 60% |
 BTCEUR | EUR 283 | 50% |
| Popular pairs | 1-month ATM minimum spread |
|---|---|
 EURUSD | 5.1 pips |
 USDJPY | 8.5 pips |
 XAUUSD | 23.36 USD cents |
With Saxo, you’ll get an average execution speed of 0.009 seconds on market orders (February 2026 statistics) and no asymmetric slippage. Our fully customised orders offer you potential price improvements on every trade and an optimal balance between fill ratio and price level.
To protect you from being stopped out early, we trigger stop orders on the opposite side of the spread, based on a neutral price from a primary inter-bank venue.
We fully disclose our dealing practices and never trade against you in the market.
Retail FX traders covered by ESMA regulation are eligible for negative balance protection, which prevents you from losing more money than what’s in your account.
Contact us to learn moreWith tiered margin, the average margin requirement (“blended margin requirement”) increases with the level of exposure. As the level of exposure decreases, the margin requirement also decreases.
We use a tiered margin methodology for FX spot, forwards, and FX options.
We’re a licensed Danish bank regulated in 13 countries and your deposits are backed by the Danish Guarantee Fund up to EUR 100,000.
Read about us On our trading conditions page you can find information about market orders, order routing, exchange- and market-specific conditions, corporate actions, and more.
See trading conditionsRollover occurs when you hold a trade open overnight. The position’s value date is moved to the next day, and a daily interest adjustment is applied to cover the cost of holding the position overnight.
Read financing detailsTo start trading forex, first be sure you understand the risks and that you research your investment choices beforehand. Once you have a trading account, you can start researching further and investing in FX. Our website and platform offer expert analysis, news, and more content to help you get started even before you have an account.
To learn about forex in general, the associated risks, and why forex can be a strategic trading product, you can check out our forex deep dive.
There are benefits to trading FX that could enhance your portfolio, depending on your goals. Forex trading allows you to speculate on currency price movements and access the world's largest and most liquid financial market. It offers opportunities in both rising and falling markets, but it can be highly volatile and trading with leverage increases risk, so be sure to assess your risk tolerance.
With a Saxo account, you can trade currencies as spot, options, swaps, and forwards. You can check out some of our forex offering in our trading platform before even creating an account, but actual product availability depends on your account setup and country of residence.
We’re a regulated Danish bank. This means we’re under the supervision of the Danish FSA and comply with stringent reporting requirements and client management regulations.
Your funds are protected via the Danish Guarantee Fund up to EUR 100,000.
Your securities are also protected by the Danish Guarantee Fund. Generally, securities would be returned to you in cases like suspension of payment or compulsory winding up. If we’re unable to return them, they are covered up to EUR 20,000 per client.
We offer you greater control of your trading via our fully customised orders.
See our published FX order execution statistics by month for our most traded FX spot currency pairs.
Our policy is designed to ensure client orders are executed promptly, efficiently, and with the best possible terms.
That depends on the account type you open.
For an individual account, these are the documents you’ll need to provide:
Most sign-ups for individual accounts are approved digitally within a few minutes. However, since we cannot compromise on security checks, the process can sometimes take longer. If all documents you provided meet requirements, we’ll process your application within 2 working days.
If you provide clear copies of all required documents, corporate accounts will generally be approved in about 1 week.
Saxo has an investment-grade
S&P credit rating
