Stage
01
Orientation & FCA basics
Understand what UK retail forex actually is, how the FCA regulates spread bets and CFDs, why 69% to 82% of retail accounts lose money, and how to read a broker's KID before you fund the first pound.
Structured Learning Path
The Amazing Reviews Trading Academy
A six-stage curriculum written by the Amazing Reviews editorial desk in Canary Wharf. Each stage combines a long-form guide, a curated video tutorial, and a live weekly webinar with an FCA-regulated broker demo drill you complete the same day.
The academy is free, jargon-light and finishable in a weekend of focused work per stage. Between 69% and 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets, so the academy is designed to get you to a survivable position sizing before you ever fund a live account.
Featured Learning Broker
4.9
IG
Academy partner · FCA #195355
IG anchors the academy demo drills, offering 17,000+ markets from a £0 minimum, spreads from 0.6 pips on IG Web and MT4, with FSCS protection up to £85,000.
What's on this page
- Stage 01 — Orientation & FCA basics
- Stage 02 — Choosing an FCA-regulated broker
- Stage 03 — Platforms, orders & execution
- Stage 04 — Risk, sizing & the trading plan
- Stage 05 — Strategy, macro & the calendar
- Stage 06 — Automation, backtesting & VPS
- Read our long-form guides library
- Join a live webinar this week
- Browse video tutorials
Stage
02
Choosing an FCA-regulated broker
Learn how to check the FCA Register, compare execution and spreads, weigh spread betting against CFDs, and shortlist two brokers you would genuinely open an account with.
Stage
03
Platforms, orders & execution
MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView explained in plain English. Order types, slippage, requotes and how execution quality actually differs between the brokers we cover.
Stage
04
Risk, sizing & the trading plan
Position sizing, fixed-fractional risk, R-multiples and the one-page trading plan you write before you fund a live account. This is the stage that keeps the account alive.
Stage
05
Strategy, macro & the calendar
Reading the economic calendar, GBP/USD and EUR/USD price action, scalping versus swing, and how the Bank of England, the Fed and the ECB set the tone for the London session.
Stage
06
Automation, backtesting & VPS
Only after you can trade a discretionary plan for three months. Expert advisors, honest backtesting, walk-forward analysis and when a VPS is genuinely worth paying for.
FCA-first curriculum
Every stage is written against current FCA rules for UK retail traders, including leverage caps, negative balance protection and the FSCS £85,000 investment limit.
London session focus
The academy is built around the London trading session and GBP-cross pairs, the environment UK retail traders actually operate in day to day.
Broker-independent
We are compensated by brokers when readers open accounts, but rankings and academy assets are set by our editorial team, not by commercial deals.
UK Broker Directory
More on the Amazing Reviews trading academy for UK retail forex traders and FCA-regulated UK brokers
The Amazing Reviews desk covers every FCA-authorised broker available to UK retail traders, from spread-betting incumbents like IG and CMC Markets through to raw-spread ECN specialists such as Pepperstone and IC Markets. Every firm we list holds current FCA authorisation, offers FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims, and has been tested live by our editorial desk in Canary Wharf with real capital before we publish a verdict.
the Amazing Reviews trading academy for UK retail forex traders is one slice of that coverage. The pages below extend the analysis into related categories, side-by-side comparisons and the methodology behind our scoring. If you are opening your first live account, start with the beginner ranking; if you are moving broker to reduce costs, jump straight into the comparison tool and pull the tightest spreads by session.
None of the brokers on Amazing Reviews are offshore or unauthorised. If a firm cannot be located on the FCA Register we do not cover it, regardless of commercial incentive. Every ranking is decided before any commercial conversation opens, and we routinely publish critical verdicts on brokers we hold commercial arrangements with.
The directory itself is refreshed after every 60-day evaluation cycle. That cadence matters, spreads move, platforms change, and FCA permissions get amended. When a broker on our list changes materially between cycles, we publish an interim update rather than wait for the next full pass. That is the same standard we apply whether the firm has a commercial relationship with Amazing Reviews or not.
Sponsored, FCA-authorised
2CMC Markets
4.8
Award-winning Next Generation platform, built for chartists.
FCA #173730 · Min £0 · Spread 0.7 pips
CMC Markets offers 12,000+ markets on Next Generation and MT4 with FSCS protection up to £85,000. Best for: Discretionary traders who live on the chart.
5Capital.com
4.7
AI-guided trading with a beautifully designed mobile app.
FCA #793714 · Min £20 · Spread 0.6 pips
Capital.com offers 6,000+ markets on Capital.com Web and Capital.com Mobile with FSCS protection up to £85,000. Best for: Mobile-first traders and self-guided learners.
9City Index
4.6
London since 1983, powered by StoneX.
FCA #113942 · Min £100 · Spread 0.5 pips
City Index offers 13,500+ markets on Web Trader and MT4 with FSCS protection up to £85,000. Best for: UK spread betting and intermediate CFD traders.