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Alison Heyerdahl is the Head of Content at FxScouts, a Chartered Market Technician (CMT), and an experienced trader, as well as a financial writer with extensive expertise in Forex trading, broker analysis, and market research. She has reviewed 100+ brokers, publishes weekly YouTube trading videos, and co-hosts the “Let’s Talk Forex” podcast.
In the fast-paced world of forex trading, choosing the right broker is crucial. FOREX.com and HF Markets are two popular options, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. This comparison will dive into the key features of both platforms,helping you decide which one best suits your trading style and goals.
The radar chart above illustrates the comparison between FOREX.com and HF Markets across several key metrics, with the highest possible score being 100 in each category.
At FxScouts, our mission is to assist traders in finding the broker that best suits their needs. Comparing brokers side-by-side is an effective method to achieve this goal. We evaluated FOREX.com and HF Markets, using our standard criteria: trust and regulation, trading platforms, costs and trading conditions, and educational and market analysis resources.
Trust and regulation are crucial when selecting a Forex broker. A broker’s credibility is largely built on its regulatory status. We spend considerable time verifying the safety of each broker by examining their regulatory licenses. We also consider numerous factors when deciding which tier a regulator belongs to. Regulators that we rank as the world’s top regulators, gets a tier 1 rank, while regulators who only scores a tier 5-rank, provide virtually no regulatory oversight. The more top-tier authorities regulating a broker, the higher its trust rating. Read more about regulation and our tier system here.
In our comparison:
Based on these findings, FOREX.com earned a higher trust rating than HF Markets.
When comparing brokers, trading costs are a significant factor. We consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and ongoing costs, including spreads and commissions. We measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit, including both the spread and any commission charged.
We found that HF Markets has overall lower trading costs than FOREX.com.
Trading Platforms Offered Traders prefer brokers that offer a variety of trading platforms. We rate brokers higher if they support multiple platforms like MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, and proprietary platforms.
Copy trading is beneficial for beginner traders or those unable to trade full-time. In this case both FOREX.com and HF Markets offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. FOREX.com offers a greater variety of instruments compared to HF Markets:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, FOREX.com offers 11 cryptocurrencies, while HF Markets offers 0 cryptocurrencies. Therefore, FOREX.com is the better choice for cryptocurrency trading.
Traders prefer brokers with quick and cost-effective deposit and withdrawal processes. We favor brokers that process withdrawals within 24 hours using multiple methods without charging fees.We found that FOREX.com charges a withdrawal fee and HF Markets does not. Overall, HF Markets has better deposit and withdrawal processes than FOREX.com.
We often find that brokers offer very little in the way of educational materials, forcing traders to use other third-party sites or self-educate elsewhere. Beginner traders need well-structured, well-presented materials in multiple formats to get a good start at trading. More experienced traders also benefit from webinars led by experts in the field and advanced trading strategy sections with new trading ideas.
FOREX.com and HF Markets both have very good educational support. Both FOREX.com and HF Markets offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that FOREX.com offers better research analysis than HF Markets and that both FOREX.com and HF Markets offer frequent webinars.
Founded in 2001, Forex.com is a well-regulated broker with excellent education and low fees that is more suited to serious beginners and more experienced traders. Beginners with low minimum deposits may be put off by the relatively high trading costs on Forex.com's entry-level Standard and MetaTrader accounts. But experienced traders will be interested in the RAW Spread Account, with a minimum deposit of 100 USD. This account has some of the most competitive spreads (0.0 pips on the EUR/USD) combined with some of the lowest commissions in the industry.
FOREX.com provides support for MT4, MT5, TradingView and its own trading platform and traders will appreciate the range of trading tools on offer, including AI Performance Analytics, Trading Central, and subsidised VPS hosting.
Education and market analysis are both excellent and experienced traders will appreciate the wide range of tradable assets, including over 80 currency pairs, 2500 share CFDs, commodities, indices, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies. Overall, FOREX.com ticks all the boxes for those with looking for a wide range of assets and a choice of trading platforms.
HF Markets (HFM) is no longer accepting new clients from the United Kingdom. This review page is for informational purposes only.
HF Markets is a well-known international broker, but its unique focus on the British market is undeniable. It has local FCA regulation, a dedicated UK customer service team, a toll-free UK customer service number, and offers GBP trading accounts. It also offers fast and free deposits and withdrawals via the Trustly app.
The HF Markets Premium Account has slightly higher trading costs than most other brokers’ entry-level accounts with a 100 GBP minimum deposit and spreads starting at 1 pip on the EUR/USD. But trading costs improve on the ZERO Spread Account, with EUR/USD spreads starting at 0.1 pips and a 6 USD commission.
HF Markets supports both the MT4 and MT5 platforms in addition to its own mobile HF App, which allows clients to trade from charts and make deposits and withdrawals. It also has several excellent trading tools to further assist traders. Unfortunately, access to tools such as Autochartist, which other brokers offer as a free service, requires an account balance of 500 GBP – well above the required minimum deposit.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of FOREX.com and HF Markets.
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Broker | Overall Rating Our overall rating evaluates brokers on platform quality, fees, service, regulation, and instruments. Higher scores reflect better performance and reliability. | Official Site Click to visit the broker’s official website for more information and to open an account. | Min. Deposit The minimum amount of money required to open an account with this broker. | Min. Spread | Trading Cost | Licenced by Displays the financial regulators licensing the broker, shown by national flags, ensuring compliance with financial standards for safer trading. | Accepts Traders from %s | Compare Select two brokers using the checkboxes to compare their features, fees, platforms, and more side by side. |
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 | USD 0 | 0 pips | USD 7 |    | jp, es, us, ca | |||
 | USD 3 | 0.10 pips | USD 7 |    | at, be, bg, cy, cz, de, dk, ee, el*, es, fi, fr, hr, hu, ie, it, lt, lu, lv, mt, nl, pl, pt, ro, se, si, sk, us, ca, au, nz, il, iq, sy, ir, kp, my, ye, sg, pr, gu | |||
 | USD 0 | 0 pips | USD 10 | | jp, be, el, lt, pt, bg, es, lu, ro, cz, fr, hu, si, dk, hr, mt, sk, de, it, nl, fi, ee, cy, at, se, ie, lv, pl | |||
| USD 5 | 0.60 pips | USD 6 |  | us, es, ca, ir, il | |||
 | USD 100 | 0.90 pips | USD 9 |     | es, be, cu, ir, kp, sy, us, nz, ru, by, lb, ye, im, uk, je, gg, af, dz, iq, ps, in | |||
 | USD 100 | 1 pips | USD 10 |  | jp, es | |||
 | USD 100 | 0.40 pips | USD 14 | | es | |||
 | USD 100 | 0 pips | USD 6 | | jp, es | |||
 | USD 200 | 0.10 pips | USD 8 | | jp, es | |||
 | USD 0 | 0.80 pips | USD 7 |  | us, es |
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Alison and Chris cover a range of topics, including how to choose a Forex broker, safety and regulation, how to reduce your risk, trading psychology, trading platforms, and trading strategies, among others.
The FxScouts podcast helps beginner Forex traders get the best start to their trading careers.
