Brazil

Brazil has the largest financial market in Latin America and one of its clearest regulatory positions on offshore retail forex. The Comissão de Valores Mobiliários supervises securities and derivatives, and it has been explicit about firms marketing leveraged trading to Brazilians without authorisation.

The CVM's position

Offering securities or derivatives to the Brazilian public requires authorisation. The CVM issues stop orders — atos declaratórios — naming specific foreign brokers and platforms soliciting Brazilian residents without it, and publishes them. The list is long and is updated regularly.

This does not criminalise a Brazilian who opens an account abroad, but it establishes the position clearly: the broker is operating outside the Brazilian framework, and the CVM has no jurisdiction to help if something goes wrong. Checking a broker's name against the published stop orders takes a minute and is the single most useful piece of due diligence available here.

The regulated alternative

Brazil has a deep, liquid domestic route to currency exposure: dollar futures and mini contracts on B3, the São Paulo exchange. These are exchange-traded, centrally cleared, accessible through Brazilian brokers under CVM supervision, and among the most heavily traded FX futures contracts in the world. For a Brazilian resident wanting leveraged currency exposure, this is the legally clean and structurally safer path, with a central counterparty instead of a bilateral bet against an offshore firm.

Payments

Pix has transformed funding. It settles in seconds, at any hour, at no cost, and works in both directions — which makes it superior to boleto and cards for both deposits and withdrawals wherever a broker supports it.

Tax

Brazil taxes trading gains at rates that differ between day trading and positions held overnight, with tax due monthly by DARF rather than annually, and loss carry-forward rules that must be tracked. Gains realised abroad are also taxable and reportable, and Brazil has tightened the rules on foreign-held financial assets. This is a real compliance workload for an active trader and it is worth a contador who handles investments.

Checks

Search the CVM register and the stop-order list before depositing anywhere.