CMC Markets Broker Review

Regulation: Indian residents will trade with CMC Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd, which is regulated by MAS – Singapore’s globally respected financial regulator. 

Safety Features: MAS has tightened its restrictions on CFD trading to better protect traders. As a result, CMC Markets clients in India will have a leverage limit of 20:1 for Forex trading and will be provided negative balance protection, meaning that traders can never lose more money than they have in their trading accounts. In addition, MAS regulations ensure that CMC Markets keeps its operational funds segregated from client accounts but also prevent CMC Markets from offering promotions or bonuses. 

History: CMC Markets is widely recognised as a pioneer in CFD trading. The company was founded in London in 1989 and launched the world’s first online Forex trading platform in 1996. It opened an office in Sydney in 2002, and CMC Markets Asia Pacific has been licenced by ASIC (AFSL: 238054) since 2004. The parent company (CMC Markets plc) has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2016, adding further regulatory oversight.

The account-opening process at CMC Markets is fully digital, and accounts are ready within one to two days, which is around the industry average.  

Indian residents are not eligible to open an account at CMC Markets.

CMC Markets offers corporate, joint, and individual accounts, but we will focus on opening an individual account:

1. Select your country of residence, then provide an email address and a password.
2. CMC will send you a confirmation code via email; enter this code to proceed.
3. Choose the account type (see below for CMC Markets’ account types) and preferred base currency.

4. Fill in your personal details and financial background.

5. Next, you will have to upload documents to verify your identity and residency. CMC Markets requires at least two documents to accept you as an individual client:

1. 1. Proof of Identification – CMC Markets accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID. The document must be valid and must contain a trader’s full name, date of birth, a clear photograph, issue date, and if it has to have an expiry date, that should be visible as well. If the document has two sides, then scans of the front and back sides must be uploaded.
   2. Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the CMC Markets’ account holder within the last 6 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority.

Once your account is verified, you can go ahead and make your first deposit.

We advise you to read CMC Markets’ risk disclosure, customer agreement, and terms of business before you start trading. 

Overall, the account-opening process at CMC Markets is hassle-free, and accounts are ready for trading within one to two business days.

CMC Markets’ accounts have no minimum deposit requirements, making them accessible to all traders. Its commission-free account has spreads that start at 0.7 pips on the EUR/USD, which is tighter than other similar brokers. Its commission-based account has spreads starting at 0.1 pips on the EUR/USD, a commission of 0.0025% on opening a trade, and the same for closing a trade. This commission is one of the highest commissions in the industry, and traders will struggle to be profitable using this account.

Account Trading Costs:

We opened and tested some of CMC Markets’ accounts:

Standard Commission-free Account

The commission-free account has no minimum deposit requirements and spreads of 0.7 pips (EUR/USD) which is significantly tighter than other brokers. There are also no commissions for Forex trading.

Commission-based Account

The commission-based account has spreads starting at 0.1 pips (EUR/USD) in exchange for a commission of 0.0025%. This translates to a charge of 25 USD for opening a position and 25 USD for closing a position when trading on one lot of EUR/USD. These are some of the highest fees in the industry.

A well-regulated broker, CMC Markets ensures that all Anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed, and as such, all withdrawals are returned to the deposit source. 

Base Currencies: The base currencies available at CMC Markets include USD, GBP, EUR,  AUD, CAD, PLN, SGD, NOK, NZD, and SEK. Unfortunately, CMC Markets does not offer accounts denominated in KES which means that Indian traders will have to pay currency conversion fees on both deposits and withdrawals.    

CMC Markets charges a Currency Conversion Fee for all trades on instruments denominated in a currency different from the currency of a trader’s account.  The Currency Conversion Fee is up to 0.5% of the trade’s realized net profit and loss, which is higher than fees charged by other brokerages.  

Deposits and Withdrawals: You can fund your account using a credit or debit card or by transferring funds from your bank account. CMC Markets does not accept cheques or cash deposits. 

See below for a list of funding methods, charges, and processing times:

CMC offers support for MT4 and the Next Generation mobile trading apps for Android and IOS. We tested the Next Generation platform using an iPhone 11:

Next Generation Mobile

We were surprised at how much the Next Generation mobile application resembles the web browser version of the platform.  It is cleanly designed and comes packed with multiple research tools, powerful charts, excellent drawing tools, pre-defined watch lists for scanning, integrated news, and educational content. We also really liked the customisable dashboard with a range of notification types, a live market calendar, and in-app support. 

Overall, the Next Generation mobile app provides a superior trading experience compared to other proprietary apps on the market and is more beginner-friendly than the MT4 mobile app.

MT4 Mobile

The CMC Markets MT4 app allows traders to work from anywhere, with functionality to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real-time, and tick chart trading to further assist traders while on the move.

Beginner traders should be aware that there is some loss in functionality when compared to desktop trading platforms, including reduced timeframes and fewer charting options.  In addition, spotty connections can reduce the overall trading experience. Generally, it is better to be at your desktop to conduct day-to-day trading and use a mobile device to keep an eye on the markets or close open positions.

Trading Platform Comparison:

CMC Markets supports both its award-winning, proprietary trading platform (Next Generation) and the industry-standard MetaTrader 4 (MT4).  The advantage of brokers offering third-party platforms such as MT4 is that traders can take their own customised versions with them should they decide to migrate to another broker.  Additionally, CMC Markets offers its own platform (Next Generation), which is more beginner-friendly than MT4 and offers some excellent analysis features.

Next Generation

Next Generation is available via browser and mobile app and is built to cater to traders of all experience levels.  It has an intuitive interface, executes trades with high speeds, and unlike most other proprietary platforms, is highly customisable.  Other features of the platform include:

• 80 technical indicators
• 70 chart patterns
• 12 chart types and allows trading directly from the chart
• An Economic Calendar and Reuters Newsfeed are both built-in and available in the mobile app. 

The only real downside to the Next Generation platform is that it does not feature automated trading.    

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

The MT4 trading platform is the most widely used Forex trading platform and at CMC Markets you can also use it to trade commodities and indices.

While you won’t receive many of the features available with Next Generation, you will be able to use your customised expert advisers. 

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.

Overall, CMC Markets offers an average selection of platforms compared to other brokers, but the Next Generation is user-friendly and offers several impressive trading features.

Client sentiment

The client sentiment feature shows the percentage of CMC Markets clients who have bought versus those who have sold for a particular asset, so you can gauge other clients’ expectations. You can also see the monetary value of these positions as a percentage.

Pattern recognition scanner

The Pattern recognition scanner scans over 120 assets every 15 minutes for emerging and completed chart patterns. When patterns are complete, a price projection box is generated to highlight potential price action movement.  

Module linking

This feature allows you to group different modules so that when you change the product shown in one module, all the other grouped modules automatically update to display the new product. In addition, grouped modules can be linked to Reuters’ market news, client sentiment, charts, and order tickets for fast analysis.

Guaranteed Stop-Loss Order (GSLO)

Like many of its peers, CMC Markets offers Guaranteed Stop-Loss Orders (GSLOs). These orders guarantee the stop-loss order price will be honored, but CMC Markets charges a premium for using GSLOs, displayed in the trade ticket window. Most brokers charge for GSLOs. If not triggered, CMC Markets refunds 100% of the cost automatically.

Overall, CMC Markets’ trading tools are average compared to other brokers.  While the tools available on the Next Generation trading platform are good, they don’t offer third-party tools typically seen at other brokers – such as a VPS service or technical tools such as Autochartist.  

Trading Tools Overview:

CMC Markets has a competent in-house research team and has partnered with several third-party analysis companies to provide more useful market analysis than is available at most other brokers.

CMC Markets is top of the class regarding analysis and research, and all analysis is comprehensive, in-depth, and provided by both its in-house analysts and third-party companies.  See below for more details:

• Economic Calendar: Fully interactive with impressive depth – it also features a powerful country comparison function for a wide range of economic indicators and has fully customisable date fields.
• Daily (sometimes hourly) research and fundamental analysis from in-­house analysts and third parties (such as Trade With Precision or Morningstar). Articles can be filtered by region and asset class.  The reports are regularly updated, including quantitative research and important details from annual financial statements. 
• The Week Ahead: A weekly video featuring top stories to keep an eye on for the week ahead is also available on YouTube. 
• CMC Markets APAC YouTube Channel: A repository of all of the video content output from CMC Markets in Australia and the wider Asia Pacific region.
• Five Minutes a Day Trading: An excellent video and article series that follows senior CMC analysts as they trade for five minutes daily on a popular Forex asset for over a month. This is a good way to relay analytical content while educating the audience and is particularly useful for beginners.
• In-Built News: If you are using CMC’s Next Generation trading platform, the Economic Calendar and news/analysis are built-in to the software so you can keep up to date while trading.
• Thomson Reuters’ Newsfeed:  Also built into the Next Generation platform, the newsfeed is provided by a third-party company, Reuters’, and includes updates on politics and on the biggest listed companies in various markets, among others.

All of the in-house analysts are active on Twitter and frequently post updates featuring their own personal take on events and market price action.

Between the analytical and fundamental tools and the quality of market research on offer – in audio, text, and video format – from both in-house and third-party experts, CMC Markets’ market analysis is considerably more useful than most other brokers.

All of CMC Markets’ educational material is free for all visitors to the website.

Because CMC Markets is a multi-asset broker, much of the educational material is grouped under the umbrella term CFD Trading- especially the Video Trading Guides.

That said, there is a standalone Forex section titled Learn Forex Trading. Here you will find:

• Forex Trading Explained: A collection of articles for complete beginners covering the basic concepts and terminology of Forex trading.
• Forex Trading Strategies: A collection of articles covering the basics of technical and fundamental trading.
• Trading Smart eBooks: A small library of eBooks covering subjects such as economic data, day trading, identifying trends, risk management, pattern recognition and trendlines.
• Video Trading Guides: A collection of videos covering strategies and concepts in CFD trading. Though these aren’t specific to Forex trading, all the subjects covered are applicable.

In addition, there is a dedicated platform and software tutorial section – important for beginner traders who want to get trading as quickly as possible.

CMC also offers regular webinars with Trade With Precision, a third-party training company. Webinars cover subjects such as: How to use technical analysis, Finding opportunities, and Possible trade entry and exit points – an upcoming Webinar series titled Ultimate Trading Bootcamp looks promising for beginner traders. All of the webinars are free with registration.

The only downside to the educational section at CMC is the poor organisation; it can be challenging to find exactly what you want – especially in the video section – and much of the Forex material is grouped with CFDs in general.

Overall, the education section is competent, in-depth, and caters to traders of all experience levels, but it is not well-structured, making it difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for.  

Education Overview:

One major oversight is the fact that there is no live chat feature.  This prolongs response times and makes traders reluctant to contact CMC Markets, especially when having to phone an international number.    

Overall, CMC Markets’ customer support is substandard compared to what is offered at other similar brokers.