CMC Markets Review – Forex
CMC Markets is a multi-award wining Forex Broker with a variety of account types on offer. A well established firm, they launched the world’s first online Forex platform in 1996, and have since racked up an impressive £3 trillion worth of annual business.
CMCs spreads tend to be tight, however ‘tend’ is the operative word here, as their spreads are not fixed, so although generally very good, double check before you open a trade – especially if your currency’s graph is looking like the Himalayas. They generally start on 2 points for EUR/USD, which is pretty good, and the rest of their 70 plus pairs on offer appear to be quite tight.
For spot Forex, there are Fixed Risk and Standard accounts. One issue with CMC is they do charge commission on trades opened in a Fixed risk account as well as the profit they make from the spread, although the amounts are minimal they do stand out as being one of the only Forex brokers to do this, however, everything must be taken on balance, and as in other things generally, cheapest is not always best (and often definitely isn’t).
Whether you choose to open a Fixed Risk or Standard account is down to your personal circumstances, and indeed your psychology as although Forex trading is not the potentially scary proposition that spread betting is, there is still the risk element. A Fixed account will provide the opportunity for setting a guaranteed stop loss which will prevent any trades you make from falling foul of gapping. With an un-guaranteed stop loss trade, if the market moves out of hours your stop loss may be ‘skipped over’ i.e. rendered useless, so you may wake-up with a surprise. But these surprises are generally not too nasty or frequent.
Required margin is also double on a Fixed Risk account, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, as higher margin means less leverage, which means less risk. Stop losses in a fixed account need to be placed at least 20 points from entry, which at lower levels of trading should not be problematic.
Their award-winning software includes the ability to place OCO (One Cancels the Other) and If Done orders, on top of the usual stop and limit orders. This is a bonus, as these functions are not offered by all brokers, and once you get you head around them (its quite simple), they are very useful. In essence they allow you to plan a series of trades based on potential market movement without having to sit at your screen manually waiting for your optimum price to be reached. Automation!
With the introduction of mobile dealing, and the constant development of their software, CMC Markets have managed to stay ahead of the game, and with the plethora of awards on their corporate mantelpiece, its easy to see why they have managed to build and retain such a vast client base.
The Facts
How to open an account
Minimum Deposit
- £2,000
Minimum Bet
- $100
Promotions
- ‘Trading IQ’ educational pack for all new clients once they have deposited funds (min £200) into their account.
Deposit withdrawal
- Major credit and debit cards
- MasterCard, Visa, Delta, Electron, Switch, and Solo.
- Credit cards carry a 1.8% transfer fee
- Payments can also be made by cheque, electronic transfer, and Moneybookers (1.75% transfer fee
- UK debit card transactions are free from charges
Trading Platform Logon
Tutorials
- A vast selection of topics, covered by webinars, seminars, and more.
Support
- Email, free-phone
Operating System Requirements
- Windows for download, or use online – Marketmaker:Web
Demo Account
- Not currently available
