Review sections
CMC Markets Video Review
VIDEO
Investor Protection & Regulations
“A forex broker with licenses from world’s top financial watchdogs”
CMC Markets is licensed by a variety of top-tier regulators. Some of the regulators that CMC Markets is licensed under include the following:
CMC Markets holds license number 173730 from the UK FCA, a license that oversees its UK and Europe operations through its MiFID passports.
CMC Markets holds license number 238054 from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
CMC Market holds license number 41187 from the New Zealand Financial services provider.
CMC Market Singapore is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Apart from the upfront protection, such as conflict of interest and unscrupulous practices that are overseen by the regulators, European customers are guaranteed a £50,000 insurance protection of their funds courtesy of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The insurance protection applies to instances when a broker goes into administration or become insolvent and needs to pay its creditors.
The regulation binds CMC Markets to hold customer funds in a separate bank account from its own. Some of the Top Tier banks CMC Markets holds its customers’ money with include Lloyds, Barclays, and Natwest.
Tradable Products
“Over 10,000 trading instruments with competitive spreads”
The list of trading instruments currently offered by CMC Market sums up to over 10,000 derivatives. These instruments are divided across the following asset classes; over 330 FX pairs clustered as a major, minor, and emerging, 90 cash and forward indices, 110+ commodities, 5 cryptocurrencies, over 9,400 shares, and over 50 treasuries that include bonds, gilts and much more.
CMC operates non-dealing desk; therefore, it adopts fixed spreads for its financial instruments which are competitive. For instance, the EUR/USD and ADU/USD have fixed spreads from as little as 0.7 points.
The indices spread start from as low as 0.3 points for indices like Singapore Free.
Commodities have spread as low as 0.3 points for commodities such as gold and natural gas.
Shares have both fixed and a variable spread (commission) depending on the shares, however, the minimum spread is 0.1% for the commission based shares and 2 cents for US and Canada shares. The shares have a commission charged for every trade entry and exit.
Treasuries have spreads from as little as 1 point for the Euribor-cash and Euro Schatz – Cash.
*The figures you see here are according to data on the clients’ website.
Since the list exceeds 10,000, we will mention just some of the assets:
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Ethereum
Ripple
Litecoin
FX Pairs
EUR/CHF
GBP/USD
EUR/USD
EUR/JPY
EUR/GBP
USD/CAD
AUD/USD
USD/JPY
USD/CHF
Indices
Germany Tech 30
Hong Kong 50
Hong Kong China H-shares
India 50
India 50 – Forward
Italy 40
Japan 225
Netherlands 25
Norway 25
Poland 20
Singapore Free
South Africa 40
Spain 35
Sweden 30
Switzerland 20
Taiwan 50
US NDAQ 100
US Small Cap 2000
US SPX 500
US SPX Midcap 400
Shares for companies from the following countries
Netherlands
Italy
Hong Kong
Portugal
Finland
Sweden
Ireland
Austria
Switzerland
Poland
Spain
France
Germany
New Zealand
Japan
Norway
Australia
UK
Denmark
Canada Singapore
US
Belgium
Treasuries
Euribor – Cash
Euro Bobl – Cash
Euro BTP
Euro BTP 3 YR
Euro-Bund – Cash
Euro Buxl – Cash
Euro OAT
Euro Schatz – Cash
Eurodollar – Cash
UK Gilt – Cash
UK Short Sterling – Cash
US Fed Funds 30 Day
US T-Bond – Cash
US T-Bond Ultra
US T-Note 10 YR – Cash
US T-Note 2 YR – Cash
Account opening
“Three-step account opening process. Traders have three account choices”
CMC Markets customers have the choice of SpreadBetting account (in the UK), CFD and corporate account.
SpreadBetting Account
No Stamp Duty Payable
Access to Demo Account
No Capital Gains Payable
Minimum deposit £0
Number of instruments 9000 +
Spreads from 0.3 pips
Maximum leverage (retail clients) 30:1
Joint or Individual accounts Available
CFD Account
No Stamp Duty Payable
Access to Demo Account
Capital Gains Payable
Minimum deposit £0
Number of instruments 9500 +
Spreads from 0.3 pips
Maximum leverage (retail clients) 30:1
Joint or Individual accounts Available
Corporate Account
No Stamp Duty Payable
No Access to Demo Account
Capital Gains Payable
Minimum deposit £0
Number of instruments 9500 +
Spreads from 0.3 pips
Maximum leverage (retail clients) 30:1
Join or Individual accounts Available
These account types favor all types of traders from beginners, professional and corporate/hedge funds. Additionally, high volume traders can get cash rebates for trading as we shall look at later.
Opening an account with CMC markets is an easy process especially for UK residents since it takes 60 seconds to respond to your application request. UK residents can begin trading almost immediately after they verify the email sent to them at their registered email address, send their ID documents and fund their accounts. Non-UK residents will have to provide further documentation to support their application and the process can take a few days. The required documents are proof of residence and proof of identity documents and sometimes certified documents which are required to comply with the KYC (Know Your Customer) protocols. Traders from USA, and Afghanistan aren’t allowed to open an account with CMC Markets.
Deposit & Withdrawals options
“Three account funding options with no minimum deposit requirement”
CMC Markets customers can fund their account using three main methods, credit card, debit cards, and bank transfer. They also accept POLi, BPAY, and PayPal for the Australian users. Every region’s CMC branch offers different funding methods to the local population. Withdrawals are free except for the Australian entity which charges a 1% transaction processing fee for credit card deposits and 0.6% charge for debit card deposits. CMC markets do not have a minimum deposit requirement. Traders are encouraged to make deposits that will sustain opening a trade. Any deposit payment you make must be from a card or account in your name. Otherwise, payments will be returned.
CMC Markets adheres to anti-money laundering rules and part of the requirements to withdraw funds is that the withdrawal method must be the same as the deposit method. However, sometimes there are exceptions where the amount to be withdrawn is too much and would require a bank transfer. Even with such an exception, the bank account details must match the details of the account profile. CMC Markets have the same day withdrawal processing time for requests made by 2 pm for UK residents and 11 am for non-UK residents.
Inactive or dormant accounts will be charged £10 per month.
Web & Desktop Trading Platforms
“A proprietary trading platform with an assortment of technical analysis tools, news feed, and chat function”
CMC Markets uses a proprietary trading platform, web, desktop & mobile, the Next Generation Platform. It is suitable for both beginners and more experienced traders, as it has two modes, Standard and Advanced. The platform has 12 chart types including the popular Japanese candlesticks, OHLC and advanced chart types such as Renko charts. There are 70 chart patterns, 115 technical analysis indicators clustered as 35 drawing tools, 30 overlay tools and 50 technical analysis studies such as MACD and Relative strength index (RSI). Besides the charting tools, traders can compare correlated assets and check out their performance, save their own customized chart layouts which can be loaded on the go, and switch between chart intervals from timeframe as low as 1 second to monthly charts.
CMC Markets proprietary platform has won many awards over the years. This includes the Best Platform Features 2017 and Best Forex Trading Platform by UK Leverage Trading Report and UK Forex Awards respectively. Dubbed as ‘Next Generation platform’, let’s find out why CMC Markets trading platform is considered the best.
Traders can utilize the CMC Markets Pattern recognition tool that is available on every chart. The tool scans the charts in search for common technical analysis patterns such as head and shoulders, and wedges. An almost similar tool, the price projection box displays completed technical analysis patterns using a colored price projection box and gives a price action hint to the trader.
Module linking is another tool that CMC Markets offers traders. The tool allows traders to group charts together and apply a setting on one chart and is supposed to take effect to the other grouped charts. With the module linking, traders are able to see the price action effect on different timeframes. Traders can utilize the tool too, to check the profitability of a certain setting across different markets when short or long. Traders can utilize all these advanced chart functions over a past data of 20 years, all of which is displayed on the CMC Markets charts.
Traders can get social over the course of their trading. You can join discussions with other traders on the chat feed and share your thoughts about trade setups and you can share chart analysis. Traders can get news from multiple market sources from their trading platform. Some of the news sources are; Reuters, CMC TV, and Morningstar research reports. The trading platform is best suited for professional traders, who can really make the most of such a diversity of features. Newbies can still utilize their trading platform but it’s worth testing out the demo account first, which is free provided you register with CMC Markets.
MetaTrader 4
Additionally, the broker offers the MetaTrader 4 platform, supposedly the most popular trading platform for Forex traders. MT4 offers trading of Forex and some commodities but does not offer to trade on such a wide selection of assets like the CMC proprietary platform. This platform allows you to programme Expert Advisors for automated trading, use a wide variety of indicators and trends, and customize your screen.
Mobile Trading Platforms
“A robust native mobile app available for Android and iOS devices”
Trading from the mobile web page has an almost similar experience to the desktop since CMC markets have a mobile responsive page. Traders can access the mobile trading platform from ordinary mobile browsers. Another option to access the CMC Markets features by mobile is by downloading the native CMC markets app. The app has similar functions as the web platform with the only difference being the sleek appearance and reduced indicators. The mobile app features price alerts, a support section, education area, and notifications via push notification and SMS. The mobile app is available for Android, and iOS powered devices.
The mobile app comes with 25+ technical trading tools, fifteen drawing tools, and five chart types. The mobile trading delivers a similar level of performance as the web version with the ability to autosave a chart and multi-chart view for mobile devices with a big screen such as iPad. Traders can try out the mobile app experience using a free to download demo account.
Trading features
“Trade with leverage as high 1:200 (professional traders) and take a look at a wide selection of add-on trading features”
UK residents are provided with a maximum leverage of 1:30 which is in compliance with FCA regulation and 1:200 for non-UK customers. CMC Markets has gone above and beyond to satisfy its clients demand trading features. Traders are offered a variety of tools to manage better their trade entry, exit, and risk. Examples of these tools are:
Guaranteed stop-loss orders (GSLO) – This stop loss function is similar to the ordinary stop loss however with the GSLO you are guaranteed that your open orders will close in case of volatile price movements. This is a paid service.Price ladder – Using a larger spread, traders are able to enter trades that have high prices compared to the first bid and ask price.Hedging – Traders are able to open both a buy and a sell trade of the same asset.Boundary orders – This orders apply when the market is volatile and assist to put a limit to what extent would you like your order to be picked. If not within limits, the order is rejected.Unrealized profit – Traders can open trades using profits which are from open orders yet to be closed.
Commissions & Spreads
“Competitive fixed spreads from as low as 0.7 for forex pairs”
CMC Markets uses a fixed spread for almost all trading instruments with the exception of some shares which they charge a commission for each trades entry and exit. The prices for the FX pairs are least with the most traded pairs, such as EUR/USD which has a spread of just 0.7. However, the spreads increase with exotic pairs such as the USD ZAR which have a spread of 85 pips. Indices and commodities have spread from as low as 0.3 points. Shares attract both a fixed and a variable spread.
CMC Markets charges £10 inactivity fee for accounts that have no trading activity for a consecutive period of two years. The amount is deducted from the account balance.
*All of these figures are taken directly from the broker’s website data.
Bonus & Promotions
“Monthly rebates and refer a friend bonus for Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore traders”
CMC Markets is bound by its regulator not to run any bonus programs or promotions within Europe. However, there is still a rebate program that means to reward loyalty and trading activity. The rebate compensates back traders money based on the monthly trading volume. The rebates apply to the following asset classes; forex, indices, and commodities. For forex, traders are required to meet a monthly trading volume of 50m to become eligible for the rebate. The rebate benefits are calculated based on tiers and traders with high trading volumes get more rebates. Traders who trade on indices are required to meet a monthly trading volume of 80m while commodities traders are required to meet a monthly trading volume of 10m. The rebate program has more terms and we recommend you visit their terms and conditions page to check these out.
Outside Europe, CMC Markets runs refer a friend bonus. This bonus is run by Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia entities. Through this bonus, traders and the referee can earn $250 by referring a friend who opens an account with CMC Markets. There is no limit to the number of people you can refer.
Customer support
“Multilingual customer support available on a 24/5 basis. Help available through in-depth FAQ’s, Live Chat, email, and phone”
CMC Markets runs a 24/5 customer support program. Traders can get in touch with the customer support team via the following means; Live Chat, telephone support (+44 20 7170 8200), email (clientmanagement@cmcmarkets.co.uk), and a physical visit to their office (map ).
The customer support team is very responsive and they will get back to your inquiries within a short time. From our experience, once we initiated the live chat, it took less than a minute to have the customer support online. They showed the highest level of professionalism during the course of the chat and were empathetic. The same applied to the email sent to them to check out some of their services. It took less than 15 minutes before they replied by email and we were given an option to open the ticket once more if the solution wasn’t satisfactory.
Customers can also get help by visiting CMC Markets Twitter page or their Facebook page. You will get additional guides and posts on these two social media channels. Alternatively, you can visit their website support section for the frequently asked questions (FAQ). Areas covered under this section include; getting started, Charges FAQ, password reset and much more topics.
The customer support is available in the following languages, Polish, French, Deutsch, Austrian, Spanish, Svenska, English, Italian, and Norwegian.
Research
“CMC Markets provides traders with a live calendar, real-time market updates, and market commentary section”
CMC Markets provides its customers with the latest market news and reports on their dedicated news and analysis section. In this section, you will find market commentary by CMC Markets financial experts, chart analysis, weekly outlook, technical analysis, and fundamental analysis. This section covers the following asset classes: forex, stocks, and indices.
Traders can utilize the CMC Markets customizable economic calendar to keep track of the upcoming market’s events. The economic calendar can be configured to give comparisons between key indicators, view dashboards, filter releases, and much more. You can view the news impact on the market highlighted in green, red and yellow.
CMC Markets clients are able to access the live news directly on the trading platform; therefore, you will get real-time Reuters news and trade macroeconomic news in real time.
Education
“E-books, videos, and webinars for beginners, intermediate, and veteran traders”
CMC Markets has a detailed education section that is suitable for both newbie and experienced traders. The educational materials are in the form or articles, e-books, videos, webinars, and seminars. For instance, in the forex section, there are articles that explain what forex is, forex strategies, and videos that cover common trading mistakes, and support and resistance. The educational section has beginner, intermediate, and advanced sections.
Trading experience
“Novice, intermediate and veteran traders will find this broker resourceful”
CMC Markets is an online broker that has taken a different approach from its competitors and its efforts seem to have paid off. Its unique selling point being the ‘Next Generation platform’ seems to be a key attraction to all trader profiles. While this trading platform seems to look complex on the outside; it becomes easier when you have a spin on it. Even easier when you use a mobile app. Other aspects of this broker have impressed us too, such as its excellent customer service, rich educational material, and fast deposit and withdrawal processing times.
FAQ
Is CMC Markets regulated?
Yes, the broker is regulated by four leading regulators FCA included.
Where is CMC Markets based?
CMC Markets is based in 133 Houndsditch, London EC3A 7BX, United Kingdom.
How does CMC Markets make money?
CMC markets makes money by charging a spread on asset ask and bid prices.
How do I deposit in CMC Markets account?
You can make a deposit to CMC markets account via debit card, credit card, and bank transfer
What is the minimum deposit for CMC Markets?
There is no minimum deposit. You are required to fund your account with an amount that will support to place a trade.
How do I withdraw money from CMC Markets?
Log in to your account and click on the payment icon, then select withdraw.
What is the max leverage in CMC Markets?
The maximum leverage is 1:30 for UK residents and 1:500 for non-UK.
How do I open an account with CMC Markets?
Opening an account is a two-step process. Fill out a registration form and fund your account. Non-UK traders will be asked for additional verification documents. After submission and verification, the account will be ready.
Does CMC Markets use MetaTrader?
Yes, the use MT4 and their proprietary platform.
What is CMC Markets leverage?
The broker depends on the country and the asset class. FX has 1:30 leverage, shares and treasuries 1:5, indices and commodities are 1:20 for UK residents.
Conclusion
“Highly regulated broker across multiple jurisdictions”
CMC Markets is a highly evolved broker with a wide range of trading tools, an advanced trading platform with features, not offered by other brokers and some competitive trading conditions. The fact that this broker is so highly regulated across multiple jurisdictions speaks volumes as to its seriousness.
