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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. FP Markets and HFM 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 FP Markets and HFM 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 FP Markets and HFM, 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. The more top-tier authorities regulating a broker, the higher its trust rating.
In our comparison:
Based on these findings, FP Markets earned a higher trust rating than HFM.
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 FP Markets has overall lower trading costs than HFM.
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 FP Markets and HFM offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. FP Markets offers a greater variety of instruments compared to HFM:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, HFM offers 40 cryptocurrencies, while FP Markets offers 11 cryptocurrencies. Therefore, HFM 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 FP Markets charges a withdrawal fee and HFM does not. Overall, HFM has better deposit and withdrawal processes than FP Markets.
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.
FP Markets and HFM both have very good educational support. Both FP Markets and HFM offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that FP Markets offers better research analysis than HFM and that both FP Markets and HFM offer frequent webinars.
FP Markets is a well-regulated Forex broker with an excellent stock trading platform designed for more experienced stock pickers. We were also impressed with how easy the FP Markets Trading App was to use and the quality of FP Markets' customer service.
In terms of fees, FP Markets has an “ECN pricing” model, which it claims provides “extremely competitive” costs. Unfortunately, we found that the fees on its MT4 and MT5 trading accounts were higher than most of its ECN competitors. But FP Markets does make it easy for beginners to get started, with 50 GBP minimum deposits and unlimited demo accounts.
FP Markets also stands out for its support for active and professional stock traders. FP Markets is one of few brokers offering the IRESS suite of trading platforms. These Direct Market Access platforms provide access to 10,000+ international stocks, but the basic IRESS account requires a minimum deposit of 1000 USD and commissions are charged on most trades.
HFM (formerly known as HotForex) is a well-known international broker with six standard trading accounts and one specialised copy trading account. Four of its six standard accounts have no minimum deposit requirements and have competitive trading fees. Some accounts are available as Islamic accounts.
We were also pleased to find that HFM has recently reintroduced cryptocurrency trading, likely due to the popularity of the asset. This is alongside an excellent range of trading instruments, including popular international stocks. The products and services available may vary according to the HFM Group entity a client’s account is registered under.
HFM supports the MT4 and MT5 platforms in addition to its own mobile HFM Trading App, which allows clients to trade from charts and make deposits and withdrawals. It also has several excellent trading tools to assist traders further.
Disclaimer: Certain products & services may or may not be available to all clients depending on which HFM Group entity their trading account(s) adheres to.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of FP Markets and HFM.
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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.
