How do HFM and Trade.com stack up against each other?

The Radar Chart below highlights how the brokers stack up against each other across various metrics. The highest score a broker can receive in each area is 5.

At FxScouts, we help traders find the broker that suits their trading needs. In many cases, the best way to achieve this is to compare brokers side-by-side.

To compare HFM and Trade.com, we used the same factors we use when reviewing brokers: The trust and regulation of the broker, the trading platform, the costs and trading conditions, and the level of education and market analysis available at the broker.

Does HFM or Trade.com have a better trust and regulation rating?

Trust and regulation are some of the most important factors to consider when choosing a Forex broker. Trust in the Forex trading business is almost entirely founded upon regulation. We spend many hours evaluating the safety of each broker by delving into their fine print and confirming each one of their regulatory licences on the online registers. The more top-tier authorities a broker is regulated by, the higher its trust rating.

In our comparison, we found that HFM holds two Tier 1 and one Tier 2 licences, and Trade.com holds two Tier 1 and no Tier 2 licences.

 

Is HFM financially regulated?

Yes HFM was founded in 2010 and is regulated by CySEC, DFSA, FCA, FSC, FSCA and FSA-Seychelles.

 

Is Trade.com financially regulated?

Yes Trade.com was founded in 2013 and is regulated by CySEC, FCA and FSCA.

 

Based on these findings, 0 earned a higher trust rating than 0.

Does HFM or Trade.com have lower costs?

Another important aspect we consider when comparing brokers is the cost of trading. When evaluating trading costs, we always consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and the ongoing trading costs, including the spreads and commissions. When calculating trading costs, we measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit. The cost includes both the spread and any commission charged. 

Not all brokers publish their trading costs, so we often open accounts and trade on their platforms to verify the spreads and commissions. Based on our reviews, we found that HFM has overall lower trading costs than Trade.com. 

 

Does HFM or Trade.com offer a better choice of trading platforms?

Traders want Forex brokers to offer them a choice of trading platforms, so we give brokers who offer multiple platforms higher ratings. Trading platforms we consider include MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader and proprietary mobile and web-based platforms. 

In this case, HFM offers support for and Trade.com offers support for . 

Do the brokers offer copy trading?

In this case both HFM and Trade.com offer copy trading.

 

Which broker offers a better choice of trading instruments?

A variety of CFD instruments – and a large range of CFDs for each instrument category allow traders more opportunities for profitable trading. The best brokers will have thousands of CFDs to trade, covering all these instrument categories. We found that Trade.com offers a greater range and depth of instruments to trade than HFM. Trade.com offers 55 Forex pairs to trade and HFM offers 53 Forex pairs to trade.

And what about Cryptocurrencies?

In this case, HFM offers 40 cryptocurrencies while Trade.com offers 12 cryptocurrencies. So if you want to trade cryptocurrencies, we advise trading with HFM.

Which broker offers better deposit and withdrawal processes?

Although brokers may have reasonable trading fees, many traders are caught out by the high non-trading fees charged by some brokers, including deposits and withdrawals. Traders want to be able to deposit and withdraw funds quickly and cheaply. Most brokers have multiple funding methods with zero fees for making deposits, but some brokers make it more expensive and take longer to process withdrawals. 

We rate brokers more highly that process withdrawals within 24 hours by multiple withdrawal methods and without charging processing fees. We found that neither HFM nor Trade.com charges a withdrawal fee. Overall, HFM has better deposit and withdrawal processes than Trade.com. 

Which broker offers better educational support?

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. 

HFM has better educational support than Trade.com. Both HFM and Trade.com offer educational support for more experienced traders.

 

Which broker offers better market analysis materials?

To successfully predict the price movements of an instrument, traders will need access to frequent market research and analysis. We find that research and market analysis are always better when they are produced in-house and updated frequently. Third-party resources don’t show the same expertise in trading ideas, so we place a strong emphasis on frequent in-house updates. Some brokers also often offer interactive webinars where traders can learn from experts in the field. 

We found that HFM offers better research analysis than Trade.com and that both HFM and Trade.com offer frequent webinars.

 

Our overall Verdict on HFM

HF Markets is the European subsidiary of HFM. For FCA protection, we recommend that UK residents look at trading with HF Markets instead.

HFM is a global CFD broker offering a relatively wide range of trading products including Forex, commodities, indices, shares, bonds, and ETFs – though it recently stopped offering crypto CFDs. 

The HFM Micro Account has lower trading costs than most other brokers’ entry-level accounts with a 5 USD minimum deposit, fast market execution and spreads starting at 1 pip on the EUR/USD. Experienced traders will be interested in HFM’s ZERO Spread Account, with EUR/USD spreads starting at 0.0 pips and a 6 USD commission.

HFM supports both the MT4 and MT5 platforms – but unlike most other brokers does not offer its own web-based platform – and has several excellent trading tools to further assist traders. Unfortunately, access to better trading tools like Autochartist, which other brokers offer as a free service, requires an account balance of 500 USD – well above the required minimum deposit.

HFM does not charge any withdrawal or deposit fees, allows hedging, scalping, and copy trading, and offers an excellent selection of educational and market analysis materials to get new traders started.

Our overall Verdict on Trade.com

Trade.com is a reliable, well-regulated broker with a wide range of tradable assets available on the MT4, MT5, and Webtrader platforms that appeals to traders who are willing to pay higher minimum deposits for tighter spreads.  

Trade.com offers an impressive range of over 2100 tradable assets, including Forex, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, bonds, ETFs, and over 2000 stock CFDs.  Support is offered for the MT4, MT5, and Webtrader platforms, but Trading Central is only available to those who deposit over 10,000 USD. 

With four live accounts, minimum deposits start at 100 USD on its entry-level account, but spreads are wider than other similar brokers at 1.9 pips on the EUR/USD.  Spreads tighten to 0.8 pips on its top-tier Exclusive Account, but this is in exchange for a minimum deposit of 100,000 USD, putting it out of the reach of most traders.  

One major drawback is that Trade.com offers virtually no educational or market analysis materials, forcing traders to self-educate with other third-party platforms.   

Which broker has the highest overall rating?

HFM has an overall rating of 4.53 and Trade.com has an overall rating of 3.52. For more detail please read our reviews of HFM and Trade.com.