ThinkMarkets Broker Review

UK residents will be trading under the subsidiary, TF Global Markets (UK) Limited, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). One of the world’s top regulators, the FCA ensures that all ThinkMarkets client funds are held in segregated accounts and that ThinkMarkets offers its traders negative balance protection, ensuring that clients cannot lose more than is in their trading account. Under FCA regulation, maximum leverage is 30:1 on major currency pairs, and it ThinkMarkets is prohibited from offering bonuses and promotions.

While the additional protection offered by the FCA regulation is welcome, some British traders may find the low leverage levels and lack of bonuses at ThinkMarkets restrictive. The only way around these restrictions is to trade with another broker, which of course then means accepting the risk attached to higher leverage.

Overall, because of its strong international and local regulation, wide industry acclaim, and long history of responsible behaviour, we consider ThinkMarkets a safe broker to trade with.

The account-opening and verification process at ThinkMarkets is fully digital and accounts are ready within 48 hours, which is about the industry average. 

All UK residents are eligible to open an account at ThinkMarkets, as long as they meet the minimum deposit requirements. These are:

• Standard Accounts: 0 USD
• ThinkZero Accounts: 500 USD

1. From the ThinkMarkets homepage, you will have to click on the ‘Create Account’ tab where you will be directed to register an account. Traders can choose between registering a live or demo account.   
2. ThinkMarkets’ registration form requires traders to fill in their country of residence, and choose the product type they would like to trade – either shares or CFDs.
3. Next, traders are required to fill in their British ID number and tax number.
4. Traders will then have to fill in their personal details, including name, email address, and date of birth, and choose a password. 
5. Traders will then be able to choose their platform (MT4, MT5, or the ThinkMarkets’ platform). 
6. The next step requires completing one’s financial details, including employment status, and financial status.
7. Verification usually takes less than 48 hours and ThinkMarkets will need:
   1. Proof of Identification – ThinkMarkets accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID. 
   2. Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the account holder within the last 6 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority. 

Overall, ThinkMarkets’ account-opening process is fully digital and hassle-free and accounts are ready for trading within 48 hours.  

ThinkMarkets provides a broader range of tradable instruments than most other brokers, which should leave most professional traders satisfied.

ThinkMarkets offers one Standard Account with no minimum deposit requirement and the ThinkZero Account with a minimum deposit requirement of 500 USD.  

Trading costs are a little higher than average on the Standard Account – most good brokers’ entry-level accounts have a trading cost of 9 USD per lot of EUR/USD traded.  However, with no real minimum deposit requirements to speak of, this is still a good account for beginner traders.  

Trading costs improve significantly the ThinkZero Account, but the minimum deposits here are much higher, at 500 USD

Spreads are variable at ThinkMarkets, meaning that they will get wider or tighter depending on trade volume and market volatility – the spreads in the table above are average spreads. It’s also important to note that there are material differences between using the MT4, MT5, and ThinkTrader platforms, mainly in terms of the financial instruments available to trade.

Account Trading Cost:

We opened and tested ThinkMarkets’ trading accounts:

Standard Account – The Standard Account is a commission-free trading account with variable spreads and no minimum operating balance, average spreads on major pairs are 1.10 pips but can fall to 0.4 pips at times. Leverage on this account is up to 30:1 and all three of ThinkMarket’s supported platforms are available.  Standard Account holders have free access to Trading Central.  

ThinkZero Account – The ThinkZero Account offers tighter spreads – starting at 0 pips but averaging 0.1 pips on major pairs – but charges an industry-standard commission of 7 USD (round turn) per trade. The minimum operating balance on this account is 500 USD and the ThinkTrader platform is unsupported – meaning you will have to use MT4 or MT5. Like the Standard Account, leverage is also set at 30:1 but ThinkZero Account holders have access to free Trading Central and a personal account manager.

ThinkMarkets Pro – ThinkMarkets provides a Pro or wholesale account that offers access to higher leverage up to 500:1 and exclusive offers.  However, professional traders are not afforded negative balance protection.  Clients have to meet certain eligibility criteria to access this account, including:

• Having opened 40 trades of significant size in the last twelve months;
• Have a financial portfolio that exceeds 500,000 EUR;
• Traders have work experience in the financial sector.

ThinkMarkets operates a “return to source” policy, meaning that withdrawals must be made via the same method and the same account as the original deposit.

Accepted deposit methods include credit/debit cards such as Visa and Mastercard, bank wire, and e-wallets (Neteller and Skrill).

Deposits and withdrawals at ThinkMarkets can be made in a number of currencies which vary depending on the chosen payment provider. When creating an account, the base currencies available are AUD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, ZAR, SGD, USD, and NZD but this is dependant upon which ThinkMarkets entity your account is opened with. 

While ThinkMarkets does not charge any deposit or withdrawal fees, the company reserves the right to impose fees on any withdrawal request originating from a trading account with minimal trading activity. Please contact ThinkMarkets support for more information on this.  Additionally, ThinkMarkets does not absorb the merchant fees charged by the various payment providers.

See below for a complete list of payment options and withdrawal times:

ThinkMarkets offers ten base currencies, which is average compared to other brokers, and it offers accounts denominated in GBP.

ThinkMarkets allows accounts to be denominated in USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, JPY, CHF, CAD, ZAR, SGD and NZD.  

This means that for UK residents with bank accounts denominated in GBP, conversion fees will not be applied for deposits and withdrawals.  However, it may still be better for traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month) to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with a GBP account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

All the trading platforms supported by ThinkMarkets are available as mobile and tablet downloads – allowing traders to keep track of their open positions while on the move.

MT4/MT5

MT4 and MT5 are freely available on both Android and IOS mobile phones and tablets. The advantage of using the MetaTrader platform is the cross-device and multi-broker functionality, making it easier to change brokers or use multiple brokers.  

ThinkMarkets’ MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere, with nine timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. Functionality to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real-time, and tick chart trading further empowers traders while on the move.

ThinkTrader Mobile

The ThinkTrader mobile app is also available for Android and iOS.  It has the same functionality as the desktop version of the platform, including in-app deposits and withdrawals, real-time news, and one-click multiple order closing. Traders can also access 80 indicators and 50 chart types, including the TrendRisk scanner.  Other features of the ThinkTrader mobile app include:

• Quad screen display
• Multi Deal closure
• Cloud-Based Alerts
• Multitouch Functionality

Trading Platform Comparison:

Alongside ThinkMarkets proprietary ThinkTrader platform, it also offers support for MT4 and MT5, the two most popular trading platforms in the Forex industry.  In addition to the desktop applications available on Windows and Mac, ThinkMarkets also offers MT4 and MT5 WebTerminal, which are browser-based versions of the platforms, along with mobile and tablet versions of both iterations.  

ThinkTrader

ThinkMarkets’ proprietary platform grew out of the company’s acquisition of Trade Interceptor, an award-winning trading platform in its own right. Available for web, mobile, tablet, and desktop, ThinkTrader offers in-app deposits and withdrawals, real-time news from FX Wire Pro, and one-click multiple order closing. It also features over 125 indicators and 50 chart types and includes the TrendRisk scanner to assist traders in finding opportunities over different timeframes.  The ThinkMarkets platform is also easy to use and set up, making it a good choice for beginner traders.

MetaTrader 4

Having established itself as the industry-leading platform, Metatrader 4 (MT4) is the most reliable and popular platform in existence. Its intuitive interface and user-friendly environment provide essential tools and resources for successful online trading. It is also widely recognised for its fast execution speeds, range of charting tools, algorithmic trading, and customisability. MT4 is available in over 31 languages.  

Other features of MT4 include:

• Supports the creation, modification, and utilisation of automated trading strategies.
• Supports MQL4 programming language.
• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 
• Allows traders to develop their own custom indicators
• Superior charting tools in nine timeframes
• 31 graphical objects
• 30 built-in indicators
• 9 timeframes
• Three order execution types
• Four types of pending orders

While MT4 has great customizability, the platform feels outdated, and some of the features may be hard to find.  In addition, only the basic orders are available, including Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop.

MetaTrader 5

The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time, it has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market, and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has a larger number of pending order types than MT4 and features an embedded chat system. In addition, the MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor and MT5 has more advanced charting tools than MT4.

The benefit of brokers offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can use the platforms should they choose to migrate to another broker.  However, MT4 and MT5 are often not as user-friendly as ThinkMarkets’ proprietary platform.  

Trading Central

A tool that provides a technical market analysis from third-party industry experts.  Trading Central’s top-notch indicators can help guide client trades through an easy-to-access platform.  It is intuitive, scans the market for opportunities 24/7, and provides a comprehensive analysis and constant notification alert system. 

VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting

Available on both MT4 and MT5, ThinkMarkets offers a free VPS service to traders who trade a minimum of 15 round turn lots on Forex in a calendar month.  Services are provided by ForexVPS and Beeks VPS.  Traders also get a 15% discount on Beeks VPS on opening a live account with ThinkMarkets.  Traders will have to contact the service providers directly to find out about pricing.  

VPS services ensure trades are never disrupted by technological or connectivity issues, such as internet service failure, which is a benefit to algorithmic traders who need to be connected to a server 24/7 to maximise uptime.  Other benefits of the VPS service include:

• 24/6 VPS email support
• 24/7 Redundant power to your VPS
• 24/7 Redundant internet connectivity to your VPS
• Low latency connectivity to FP Markets trading servers for precision trading
• Uninterrupted EA trading

Zulutrade

Zulutrade, a third-party platform, is a peer-to-peer social trading application where traders can choose among thousands of registered traders from 192 countries.  Traders are ranked using “ZuluRank” according to a number of different metrics, including their overall performance, stability, maturity, exposure, and minimum equity required. ZuluTrade charges a 30 USD monthly subscription. ZuluTrade customers will be charged directly by ZuluTrade via credit card, PayPal, or other.  On the whole, Zulutrade is an excellent social trading platform, particularly for beginners who are new to the trading space.

Trading Tools Comparison:

ThinkMarkets’ market analysis materials are limited compared to other similar brokers.  

Market research and analysis are slightly disappointing.  Alongside a basic Economic Calendar, ThinkMarkets has a Market News section featuring a stream of market analysis. This analysis is updated every few days and is of high quality, though we would like to see daily market updates across the major pairs. In this section, you can also find a Sentiment Indicator for the major pairs and links to the ThinkMarkets Twitter account, though at the time of writing this seems to have not been updated in some time.

ThinkMarkets also publishes special reports, although this occurs very infrequently.  

Education at ThinkMarkets is split into three tutorials: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced – unfortunately, these tutorials are only available after signing up with ThinkMarkets, though you will not need to make a deposit in order to access them.

The Beginner section covers the basic aspects of Forex CFD trading such as leverage and margin and introduces traders to the MT4 platform. The Intermediate section covers trading plans, candlesticks, order types, and chart patterns – all essential skills for successful traders. Finally, the Advanced section covers technical and fundamental analysis, Fibonacci ratios, and support and resistance levels, among others – again, concepts that we consider essential for successful trading.

Alongside these tutorials, ThinkMarkets also has a technical analysis section of commonly used indicators for MT4 and MT5 – something we wish more brokers would offer to new traders, a section of educational articles, and a Trading Glossary devoted to the terminology of CFD trading.

ThinkMarkets also offers weekly live webinars, run by industry experts.  Traders merely have to register a name and email address to attend webinars.  

Educational Material Comparison:

Customer support is available 24/7. Support is available via phone, email, and live chat and phone numbers are also available for the Australian, UK, Italian, South African, and Spanish offices.

For the purposes of this review, we found the Customer Support at ThinkMarkets to be responsive, polite, and resourceful.