HFM’s research and market analysis is divided into three main sections, each of which provides a specialised benefit for traders looking for market insight and trading opportunities.
Forex News – In partnership with FXSTREET, a respected market news aggregator and publisher, HFM provides a constant stream of news that impacts the markets. While the main focus is on geopolitical events and macroeconomic movements, we found that there is some reporting on technical analysis – mainly from large banks and other financial institutions. With new stories every few minutes, 24/5, this is an excellent resource for traders using all types of strategies.
HFAnalysis – This is the hub for HFM’s own market research content. The focus is a market news blog, split between fundamental and technical analysis, and trader education. From here, we were able to access monthly and quarterly outlooks, video analysis, special reports, and intraday charts. We were also able to access the HFM podcast; generally published mid-week, this is a detailed look at recent market movements and a look ahead to potential market-impacting events. Overall, we found that the analysis provided by HFM’s experts is detailed and accurate and is on par with the in-house research provided by other large international Forex brokers.
Advanced Insights – This plugin for MT4 and MT5 provides sentiment and volatility analysis from an insight engine that applies big data AI to millions of news articles and live trading positions. The plugin also provides a timeline of the upcoming events and presents detailed infographics on HFM’s full range of assets. While this tool is free, traders must have deposited at least 100 USD and made closed trades worth 10 lots or more in the previous two months.
Trading Tools
We found that HFM offers an excellent range of trading tools, including Autochartist, a free VPS service, and a set of Premium Trading Tools. While all these tools are provided free, we were disappointed that traders are required to make a substantial deposit before access is provided.
Autochartist
Available for all HFM clients with a minimum deposit of 100 USD, Autochartist is an award-winning automated technical analysis tool that plugs into MT4 and MT5 and scans all available CFD markets for trading opportunities. It is one of the best technical analysis tools on the market and we were pleased to see that HFM subscribes to its services.
Autochartist’s advanced pattern recognition engine identifies the strongest potential trading opportunities and predicts future price movements. Some of Autochartist’s key features are:
- Chart pattern recognition
- Fibonacci pattern recognition
- Key level analysis
- Pattern quality indication
VPS
HFM clients with a minimum deposit of 5000 USD can also subscribe to a free VPS hosting service provided by external third-party providers. VPS services ensure trades are never disrupted by technological or connectivity issues, such as load-shedding or internet service failure. The VPS service is only available to traders using the MT4 platform. See below for more details:
Premium Trader Tools
Premium Trader Tools provide all HFM clients with a minimum deposit of 200 USD, allowing traders access to institutional quality technology, including advanced trading tools, user-configurable news and information, and trade analysis. It also includes an array of sophisticated alarms and messaging systems and live sentiment and correlation tracking. A few of the tools in the package include:
- Trade Terminal: A feature-rich professional trade execution and analysis tool, providing several trading features and order controls that are not included in MT4 or MT5.
- Mini Terminal: The mini-terminal facilitates trade management by making commonly-used trading features more accessible than in the native version of the software.
- Connect: A customisable news feed aggregator and interactive economic calendar
- Correlation Matrix and Correlation Trader: These tools work together to show correlations between pairs of trading symbols. It functions with any symbols available in the trading platform, allowing a calculation of the correlation between multiple asset classes against Forex. The Correlation Trader will then allow for a detailed inspection of the correlation between any two instruments.
Other trading tools available at HFM include a range of trading calculators, which can be used to calculate pip value, swap fees, risk percentages, and support and resistance levels.
Between the analytical tools and the sheer scale of market research on offer – in audio, text, and video format – from both in-house and third-party experts, we think HFM’s market analysis is considerably more useful than most other brokers – though about equal when compared with other international brokers with large research and analysis budgets.
Market Research Comparison: