Best CFD brokers in Germany

• 31 CFD brokers with a verified licence serve residents of Germany: 2 hold a local licence (BaFin) and 29 serve under an EU passport.
• Top pick by Coinish Score: IG (78/100, Editor Rating 4.2/5).
• Lowest advertised EUR/USD all-in cost: 0.1 pips (Deriv), across 16 brokers that publish one.
• No minimum deposit: Deriv.

Ranked by Coinish Score: half the Editor Rating for the entity that serves residents of Germany, half Market Signal. Brokers without enough verified data for a rating are placed by Market Signal and labelled; brokers with neither are listed last. How we rate

Of the 31 CFD brokers on this list, 23 serve Germany from a CySEC licence in Cyprus (FxPro, eToro, FOREX.com and 20 more), 2 hold a licence from the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) (IG and CMC Markets), 2 serve Germany from a CBI licence in Ireland (Interactive Brokers and AvaTrade) and 1 serves Germany from a KNF licence in Poland (XTB); 3 more are licensed by Bank of Latvia, MFSA and CMVM.

ESMA's product intervention measures cap retail CFD leverage at 30:1 on major currency pairs, down to 2:1 on cryptocurrencies. In Germany, BaFin applies them through its own product-intervention rules. The 5 that publish the regulator-required loss figure report that 51% (eToro) to 75% (XM) of retail CFD accounts lose money; the median is 73%.

Advertised all-in EUR/USD costs on this list run from 0.1 pips (Deriv) to 1.5 pips (Orbex) across the 16 that publish one.

• Search the company name on the BaFin register (portal.mvp.bafin.de); for a firm licensed elsewhere, on its home regulator's register too (CySEC, CBI and KNF for most of this list).
• Check which company your contract is with. IG, for example, onboards residents of Germany through IG Europe GmbH (BaFin licence 148759), and the name on the account-opening documents should match the list.
• Look for the percentage-of-accounts-that-lose-money warning on the broker's site. A firm marketing CFDs to residents of Germany without it is probably not using its regulated entity.

Yes, with a licensed provider. Brokers need MiFID II authorisation from an EEA regulator; firms authorised elsewhere in the EEA may serve residents under the European passport. BaFin restricts CFDs for retail clients (leverage limits, margin close-out, negative balance protection).

Sources: bafin.de, bafin.de

By Coinish Score, IG (78/100, Editor Rating 4.2/5), through IG Europe GmbH (BaFin licence 148759). FxPro (72) and eToro (72) follow. The score rates the company that would serve you in Germany, so the same brand can rank differently in another country.

Germany banned CFDs that could cost you more than your deposit. With those products, if the margin in your account didn't cover a loss, you had to pay the difference from your other assets. BaFin stopped such CFDs being sold to retail clients with its General Administrative Act of 8 May 2017, a year before ESMA's 2018 decision applied the ban across the EU.

CFDs can now only be sold to retail clients with negative balance protection, so none of the 31 brokers here can ask you to cover a negative balance.

Source: bafin.de

Yes. A firm authorised under MiFID II in one EEA country can serve residents of the others once its home regulator has notified them. 29 of the 31 on this list reach Germany that way, most from Cyprus (23), Ireland (2) and Poland (1).

The home regulator supervises the firm and its compensation scheme applies, while BaFin can still set conduct rules for clients in Germany.

Source: bafin.de

If a broker fails, the compensation scheme of the regulator that licenses it applies, not one chosen by where you live. For this list: Entschädigungseinrichtung der Wertpapierhandelsunternehmen (EdW): 90% of the claim, up to €20,000 per investor for clients of BaFin-licensed investment firms (2 on this list); Investor Compensation Fund (Cyprus): 90% of covered claims, up to €20,000 for clients of CySEC-licensed investment firms (23 on this list); Investor Compensation Company (ICCL): 90% of the loss, up to €20,000 per investor for clients of CBI-licensed investment firms (2 on this list); KDPW investor compensation scheme (Poland): 100% up to €3,000 and 90% above that, at most €20,100 per investor for clients of KNF-licensed investment firms (1 on this list). Compensation covers missing client money and assets after a firm's failure, never trading losses.

Sources: e-d-w.de, cysec.gov.cy, investorcompensation.ie, kdpw.pl