Best UAE CFD Brokers & CFD Trading Platforms Compared

Yes, Dubai & The UAE has been trying to establish itself as a financial trading centre for much of the last decade and has now succeeded, with the majority of global CFD brokers having offies in Dubai. In fact, some UK-based CFD trading platforms, such as capital.com, have moved entirely from the UK to the UAE.

The principal regulator is the DFSA, the Dubai Financial Services Authority which regulates financial businesses, based in Dubai’s special economic zone.

Which is centred around the Dubai International Finacial Centre or DIFC. This special economic zone consists of 272 acres of commercial real estate, which houses hundreds of financial institutions, that operate under a tax and business-friendly regime.

More than 25,000 finance professionals work within the DIFC for over 2500 companies, details about those companies can be checked on the DIFC public register which can be found on their website.

The DFSA oversees the special economic zone and the businesses within it, including asset managers, insurers, banks and credit service providers, brokers, fund managers and custodians.

The DFSA enforces anti-money laundering regulations and has the power to investigate the activities of companies on the DIFC register.

No. DFSA regulated brokers can no longer offer volume-based rebates to their retail customers.

Yes. The regulator has also introduced negative balance protection for the retail clients, of the CFD brokers it regulates, limiting a client’s maximum loss to the balance of funds on their account
And at the same time, the DFSA has imposed an automatic close out rule whereby open positions are closed if a client’s equity falls below 50% of their margin requirement.

In December 2021 the DFSA introduced new rules for retail clients who trade CFDs through brokers under its oversight.

In common with other regulators, the DFSA has mandated the maximum, margin levels that can be applied to retail CFD trading accounts.

As a result, margin rates have more than doubled for retail clients trading vai Dubai based brokers.
However, these new margin restrictions are still more generous than those allowed by either the UK’s FCA or the European Union’s ESMA.

Under the DFSA rules, clients can access margins of 50:1 on Indices and FX majors, and some commodities such as gold and oil, whilst other commodities are margined at 20 to 1.

CFDs on individual shares are leveraged at 10 to 1, whilst cryptocurrencies can be traded on margins of 20% or a ratio of 5 to 1.

Nor can retail customers offset margins for long and short positions in the same asset, instead, they must now margin each position separately. Client money is held in a segregated client bank account under the DFSA’s client money rules.

City Index and XTB have the lowest spreads for trading Oil whilst IG and CMC Markets have the lowest spreads for trading Gold.

IG offers the most markets to UAE traders, with over 17,000 tradable instruments. Followed closely by City Index’s 12,000, although City Index also has some excellent added value trader tools like SMART signals and performance analytics.

Saxo Markets offers the most account types for trading in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, including direct market access futures and options.

Yes. We have extensively tested each of the brokers in this list, interviewed the CEOs and analysed the key data points that make trading platforms stand out. You ca see what others think of them and read our full reviews of the individual trading platforms here

• City Index review
• IG review
• CMC Markets review
• Pepperstone review
• Saxo Markets review
• Interactive Brokers review
• Spreadex review
• Markets.com review
• XTB review
• eToro review
• Plus500 review
• Capital.com review

If you would like to see what we think of each trading platform for specific products you can read our CFD broker reviews, or our forex trading platform reviews.

It is possible to be classified as a professional client of a Dubai based broker.

Though to qualify for that designation you will need to meet some quite stringent criteria, including having a portfolio with an unencumbered value of US $1.0 million or greater.

You should be able to demonstrate that you have made 40 or more significant leveraged trades over the last year.
Each of these trades should have had a minimum notional value of US $50,000.

Alternatively, you will need to have worked in a relevant professional position in a DFSA regulated firm, within the DIFC. Or, at an overseas firm regulated by an equivalent body, such as the FCA or ESMA etc, and have done so within the last two years.

Professional clients in Dubai are not subject to the DFSA margin restrictions however and they can receive volume-related rebates on their trading activities.

The principal stock exchange in the UAE is the ADX which is based in Abu Dhabi, the Emirates capital.

ADX was founded in November 2000 and is now the second-largest stock market in the Arab region, and offers trading in stocks, bonds, ETFs, and other instruments approved by the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority.

The exchange operates a main market for blue-chip stocks, alongside a growth section and a newly established derivatives market, that currently trades equity futures.
Index futures and other derivatives are due to be introduced as this section of the ADX exchange expands.

Non UAE residents can open a trading account with a regulated broker in the UAE, however, those brokers are not allowed to openly solicit business from UK nationals.