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Synthetic Indices Brokers — Prices the Firm Generates Itself, November 2026

Written by traderpublic research deskReviewed by traderpublic research deskFact-checked by traderpublic research deskRecords last updated

Editorial note: every figure on this page comes from the broker's hub record and names the source it was checked against (our methodology). Where nobody has checked a field we say "not published" rather than guess. Nothing here is investment advice (risk disclosure).

Go to broker

Your capital is at risk.

FxPro Global Markets Limited record

Short on time? Of the brokers on this page, the highest published score belongs to FxPro Global Markets Limited (4.4/5). What its record states:

  • Regulation: CySEC, FCA — Registration verified
  • Trading platform: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView, Proprietary web platform
  • Asset classes: Made up FX, indices, shares, commodities, crypto
  • Advertised leverage: Made up up to 1:500 (professional account)
  • Index spread: Made up S&P 500 from 1.0 points
  • Min deposit: Not published

Below: every record on this page in one table, then each broker in turn.

Brokers on this page (6 records with a published score)

A synthetic index is a number stream the broker's own software generates, styled to move like a market. Nothing external prices it: the same firm that quotes it, settles it. That makes the usual questions — is the spread fair, was the fill honest — unanswerable from outside, and it makes the licence trail the only fact on this page that does not depend on trusting the firm's own account of itself.

This page shows our full published ranking with that licence trail leading. Index ranges and trading hours are written-in examples, labelled where they appear: our wire carries no synthetic-instrument field, and the one fact that would matter most — who audits the number generator, if anyone — has no field either, so it is named as a gap.

This order is our published desk score, which covers the broker overall. It is NOT a synthetic-indices ranking: no instrument range, generator audit or leverage fact on this page has been checked.

Warning:

Leveraged products such as forex and CFDs carry a high level of risk. A large share of retail accounts lose money trading CFDs. Make sure you understand how they work and whether you can afford the risk.

Synthetic indices side by side

6 records as columns. Every cell is a record field; a field nobody has checked yet is shown as unpublished, never guessed.

Synthetic indices, November 2026

Synthetic indicesFxPro Global Markets LimitedCapital.comHF Markets (SV) LtdTickmill LtdTF Global Markets (STL) LimitedEightcap
Published score4.4/54.3/54.1/54.1/54.1/54/5
Made up CFDsYesYesYesYesYesYes
Made up Advertised leverage1:5001:10001:5001:5001:301:30
Made up S&P 500 spread1.0 points1.5 points1.0 points1.0 points0.4 points0.4 points
Made up Crypto CFDsYesNoYesYesYesYes
Licences we verified233213
Min depositNot publishedNot publishedNot published$100$10$100
Trading platformMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView, Proprietary web platformMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView, Proprietary web platformMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Proprietary web platformMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView, Proprietary web platformMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView, Proprietary web platformMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView
RegulationCySEC, FCA — Registration verifiedASIC, CySEC, FCA — Registration verifiedCMA (Kenya), CySEC, FCA — Registration verifiedCySEC, FCA — Registration verified · FSA (Seychelles) — Registration not verifiedCySEC — Registration verifiedASIC, CySEC, FCA — Registration verified · FSA (Seychelles) — Registration not verified
Next stepGo to brokerGo to brokerGo to brokerGo to brokerGo to brokerGo to broker

Each broker in turn

  1. Rank 14.4/5

    FxPro Global Markets Limited

    Go to broker

    Your capital is at risk.

    Min deposit:
    Not published
    Regulation:
    CySEC, FCA — Registration verified
    Asset classes:
    Made up FX, indices, shares, commodities, crypto
    Advertised leverage:
    Made up up to 1:500 (professional account)
    Index spread:
    Made up S&P 500 from 1.0 points

    Highest · lowest scoring area

    Highest-scoring area
    Licence and oversight 5
    Lowest-scoring area
    Getting money in and out 4
    View review
  2. Rank 24.3/5

    Capital.com

    Go to broker

    Your capital is at risk.

    Min deposit:
    Not published
    Regulation:
    ASIC, CySEC, FCA — Registration verified
    Asset classes:
    Made up FX, indices, crypto
    Advertised leverage:
    Made up up to 1:1000 (offshore entity)
    Index spread:
    Made up S&P 500 from 1.5 points

    Highest · lowest scoring area

    Highest-scoring area
    Licence and oversight 5
    Lowest-scoring area
    Getting money in and out 4
    View review
  3. Rank 34.1/5

    HF Markets (SV) Ltd

    Go to broker

    Your capital is at risk.

    Min deposit:
    Not published
    Regulation:
    CMA (Kenya), CySEC, FCA — Registration verified
    Asset classes:
    Made up FX, indices, shares, commodities, crypto
    Advertised leverage:
    Made up up to 1:500 (professional account)
    Index spread:
    Made up S&P 500 from 1.0 points

    Highest · lowest scoring area

    Highest-scoring area
    Licence and oversight 5
    Lowest-scoring area
    Trading from a phone 3.5
    View review
  4. Rank 44.1/5

    Tickmill Ltd

    Go to broker

    Your capital is at risk.

    Min deposit:
    $100
    Regulation:
    CySEC, FCA — Registration verified · FSA (Seychelles) — Registration not verified
    Asset classes:
    Made up FX, indices, shares, commodities, crypto
    Advertised leverage:
    Made up up to 1:500 (professional account)
    Index spread:
    Made up S&P 500 from 1.0 points

    Highest · lowest scoring area

    Highest-scoring area
    Licence and oversight 5
    Lowest-scoring area
    Trading from a phone 3.5
    View review
  5. Rank 54.1/5

    TF Global Markets (STL) Limited

    Go to broker

    Your capital is at risk.

    Min deposit:
    $10
    Regulation:
    CySEC — Registration verified
    Asset classes:
    Made up FX, indices, commodities
    Advertised leverage:
    Made up up to 1:30 (retail)
    Index spread:
    Made up S&P 500 from 0.4 points

    Highest · lowest scoring area

    Highest-scoring area
    What you can trade 5
    Lowest-scoring area
    Trading from a phone 3.5
    View review
  6. Rank 64/5

    Eightcap

    Go to broker

    Your capital is at risk.

    Min deposit:
    $100
    Regulation:
    ASIC, CySEC, FCA — Registration verified · FSA (Seychelles) — Registration not verified
    Asset classes:
    Made up FX, indices, commodities
    Advertised leverage:
    Made up up to 1:30 (retail)
    Index spread:
    Made up S&P 500 from 0.4 points

    Highest · lowest scoring area

    Highest-scoring area
    Licence and oversight 4
    Lowest-scoring area
    Licence and oversight 4
    View review

All 198 brokers in the full rating

What decides a synthetic-indices account — and what we have not published

The licence rows are real. Everything specific to synthetic instruments is either a labelled written-in example or a named gap — including the question that decides whether the product is checkable at all: who, if anyone, audits the price generator.

Licences we checked ourselves

This is the part of the page that rests on evidence: each licence number was read from the regulator's own public register on the date shown.

What a binary option is, and why regulators banned it for retail

A binary option is a fixed-payout bet on a yes-or-no outcome: if the price is on your side of the line at expiry you receive a set amount, and if it is not you typically lose the full stake. There is no position to manage and nothing to close early on most platforms — the outcome is all or nothing.

The FCA prohibited selling them to retail clients in 2019, describing them as gambling products dressed as investments, and ESMA's prohibition covers the EU. The structural reason: the pricing gives the platform a house edge that is hard for a customer to see, the short expiries invite rapid repeated staking, and the all-or-nothing payoff removes every risk-management tool a trader normally has.

An entity whose licences all come from banning regulators may not lawfully offer you binaries as a retail client. An offer that reaches you anyway is coming from a different entity in a different jurisdiction — check which one on its regulator's own register before anything else, because the protections you may assume travel with a brand name do not.

If you are considering a platform that offers binaries, establish these before depositing.

  1. Find the exact entity name on the account agreement and look it up on its regulator's own register.
  2. Check whether that regulator permits retail binary options at all — the FCA, ESMA members and ASIC do not.
  3. Establish what happens to an in-the-money position if the platform disputes the expiry price, and who arbitrates.
  4. Test a withdrawal with a small amount before staking anything you would mind losing.
  5. Treat any payout percentage in marketing as unverifiable: no external market prices these contracts.

What a synthetic index is, and what cannot be checked about it

A synthetic index is a number stream generated by the broker's own software, tuned to a stated volatility and styled to chart like a market. Nothing external produces or verifies the price: the firm that quotes it also settles every trade on it, around the clock, weekends included.

That single fact reorganises every question you would normally ask. Spread fairness, execution quality and slippage cannot be compared against any outside reference. The one meaningful external check would be an independent audit of the number generator, published where customers can read it — which is why that audit leads this page's list of unpublished facts.

What the structure genuinely offers

  • Markets that never close, including weekends
  • Stated, constant volatility rather than news-driven spikes
  • No gaps from external sessions opening or closing
  • Very small position sizes on most platforms

What it costs you

  • The counterparty and the price source are the same firm
  • No external reference exists to dispute a fill or an expiry price
  • Regulators that cap CFD leverage have not authorised these products for retail, so the entities offering them sit outside those protections
  • A published generator audit is rare, and without one, fairness rests entirely on trust

Constant advertised volatility is not reduced risk. A Volatility 75 index moves like a violent market by design, at leverage the offering entity's jurisdiction does not cap. The absence of weekends is also the absence of a pause.

Frequently asked questions

If the broker generates the prices, can it trade against me?

The firm is the counterparty and the price source at once, which is exactly why the generator audit question leads our gap list. A firm can publish an independent audit of its number generator; whether each one does is not on our wire, so this page names that as unpublished rather than assuming either answer.

Why do only offshore entities offer synthetic indices?

Regulators that cap CFD leverage and ban binaries have not authorised synthetic-index products for retail either, so firms offer them through entities licensed where no such restriction applies. That is what the licence rows on this page let you see per broker: which entity, licensed by whom.

Who did the work on this page

Records read by
traderpublic research desk
Reviewed by
traderpublic research desk
Registers checked
16 Sept 2026

We publish no individual byline for a compiled category page. The work is the desk's, and naming a single author would suggest a judgement one person made.