CMC Markets is a global Forex and CFD broker that was founded back in 1989. CMC Markets is UK based and listed on the London Stock Exchange, but also has hubs in Sydney and Singapore. In their 30 years of trading, CMC Markets has a track record of being a safe, secure and trusted broker that’s authorised by several top tier regulatory bodies.
We wanted to find this out for ourselves and pass our findings onto you, which is why we’ve carried out this CMC Markets review. We’ll be looking at multiple aspects of their platform, with a focus upon CMC Markets crypto trading options.
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In terms of security, our CMC Markets review rates them pretty highly as they are well regulated with a secure login and authorisation system and they keep user funds separate from their own to protect them in the event of the company entering financial problems.
The stand out feature of this CMC Markets review is undoubtedly their Next Generation trading platform. This platform is unique to CMC and we found it to run smoothly and quickly whilst also being reliable. In terms of aesthetics, the Next Generation platform has gone for the black background with colour fonts and charts, a desktop theme that is proven to be better for the eyes.
The mobile trading app does extremely well to replicate the desktop platform on the smaller screen, with little information and few functions being left out. It’s clear straight away when using the Next Generation app that CMC’s developers took plenty of time and paid close attention to detail when creating their mobile version as it replicates the desktop version beautifully. The one drawback of the mobile version is that it only has 29/81 technical indicators compared to the desktop version, however this is still better than most competitors.
When carrying out this CMC Markets review, we were very pleased to discover that they have a range of deposit options, none of which come with fees attached. While deposits made with credit or debit cards and PayPal are all instant, bank transfers seem to be a little slow, with some taking several business days. CMC markets has 10 different account base currency options, which is more than most of their competitors and means you can avoid conversion fees for deposits and withdrawals.
On the face of it, there are no fees for withdrawals via credit/debit cards, domestic banks or eWallets. However, when we tested things a little further during our CMC Markets review, we discovered that there is a £15 fee if you withdraw your funds into an account that has a different base currency from your CMC account. The same fee is also charged in exchange for instant withdrawal.
The customer service was rated highly overall in our CMC Markets review. Account holders can contact CMC markets support team via live chat, phone and email in a choice of 9 different languages, including Chinese, Spanish and Norwegian, as well as English.
With the live chat, responses were quick and informative, with someone alway getting back to us almost instantly with an answer. CMC’s phone line responses are quick, with most issues getting resolved the same day. If customers find the phone response times to be a little slow, the live chat’s always there as a backup. CMC Markets do offer 24 hour support however their lines aren’t open over the weekend, which is a drawback.
Higher end traders can get a CMC Alpha account, a VIP scheme that offers a number of extra privileges to high volume traders, including a dedicated personal account manager.
Our CMC Markets review gives them a high security and trustability rating, up there with the best around. CMC Markets is authorised by four tier 1 regulatory bodies from four different countries; Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). On top of this, CMC Markets is listed as a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, making their finances extremely transparent.
UK and EU account holders’ investments are protected upto the value of £85,000 while Canadian accounts are protected upto the value of $1,000,000CAD. Account holders from other countries don;t enjoy such protection, however CMC keeps client funds separate from their own, which theoretically protects them should the company enter any financial problems. UK and EU residents can also benefit from negative balance protection.
In this CMC markets review, we want to bring a particular focus upon the platforms crypto trading options, and it’s fair to say we were pretty pleased with what we found. To start off on a small negative point, their selection of cryptocurrencies is low, as with CMC Markets, bitcoin and just 3 other types of cryptocurrencies are available; ethereum, litecoin and ripple.
However, when testing the platform further to create our review, we found that their range of crypto indices makes up for it. The crypto indices allow trades to group cryptocurrencies to trade them against the US dollar, meaning traders don’t have to rely on one single crypto currency coin’s market value for their trade to be profitable.
With CMC Markets, clients can trade crypto currencies against the $USD via either spread bets or CFDs. With spread bets, you buy crypto at a certain price per point with the belief that its value will increase against the USD. Let’s say you buy it at $0.5 per point, this means you’ll make $0.5 profit on every $1 increase in value, however you also stand to lose $0.5 for every $1 drop in value, making it a risky investment.
This CMC Markets review is primarily focussed upon crypto trading, however the platform’s other trading options are most certainly not to be overlooked. As well as cryptocurrencies, traders can operate on 6 other markets; forex, indices, commodities, shares, share baskets and treasuries.
The ways to trade, however, are limited to just CFDs (contracts for difference) and spread bets. This is a bit restrictive, but in this CMC Markets review we found them to excel in both trading types. Their Next Generation platform, their research materials and customer service professionals who help both new and professional traders almost every step of the way.
When it comes to Forex, CMC Markets’ selection of pairs is fairly extensive, with 180 major and minor FX pairs to trade with competitive spreads and margins. The total number of CFDs offered by CMC is 9,848, which is almost double that of Forex.com.
An aspect that we’ve rated very highly in this CMC Markets review is their trading hours, which run from 21.00 Sunday to 22.00 Friday GMT. While it’s standard for trading brokers to operate 24/5, starting on Sunday night and finishing later on a Friday gives clients trading with CMC an extra few hours advantage.
We’ll start off this section of our CMC Markets review talking about the deposit and withdrawal fees, because there are none of their – and the good news is that most other fees are low.
One of the highlights we found when creating this CMC Markets review, was the trading fees, as their spread offers are low and available to all customer tiers – not just professionals and VIPs. The fees here are built into the spread, with the average spread cost on EUR/USD coming in at 0.7-0.81 pips. Active traders and VIP account holders can enjoy a range of discounts and rebates depending on volume.
The only notable non trading fee we managed to find was the £10 monthly inactivity fee for accounts that go 12 months without use. The one big negative that we found in our CMC Markets review is the high Stock CFD fees.
CMC Markets is headquartered in London and is available in most countries in Europe and throughout the rest of the world, however capabilities may vary depending on the country’s laws. As is the case with most brokers that offer CFD trading, our CMC Markets review must note that the broker is not available in the USA.
While CFD trading is available to clients in all of the countries where CMC Markets operate, spread betting is only available to account holders in the UK and Ireland. This is due to the fact that the laws surrounding spread betting are more complicated in different countries than CFD trades. In the UK and Ireland spread bets are regulated by the FSA, however profits are not subjected to capital gains tax, similar to winnings from gambling.
CMD Markets has hubs in Singapore and Sydney, giving customers in Australasia and SouthEast Asia customer service to suit their time zones.
With CMC Markets, you can learn how to trade before you create your account. As well as having an array of educational materials available to non account holders, CMC also offers free webinars and even in person seminars. With these you can learn everything from basic trading to advanced strategies. CMC Markets also has a demo account option where you can practice with virtual money before trading for real. We strongly recommend that those new to trading make full use of these materials before investing real money, as trading cryptocurrencies as CFDs is extremely volatile and risky.
Below, this CMC Markets review has provided a simple step-by-step guide to trading on the platform.
For users from most countries, there is only the CFD option, however users in the UK and Ireland will be able to choose spread bets as well.
The account creating process is fairly straightforward, but it can take 1-3 days for your account to be fully verified. Make sure to register with 2 forms of ID, as this is required but isn’t made especially clear.
Before you start trading, you’ll need to deposit some money to trade with. See the Payments section above for more details.
Now it’s time to start trading in CFDs. What’s important to remember here is that you’re trading on the price movement of whatever you choose to trade, and don’t ever own the underlying asset. With cryptocurrencies you can trade them in pairs or against the $USD, this differs greatly from buying crypto on an exchange.
As a well regulated and transparent company that’s listed on the London Stock Exchange, we found in our CMC Markets review that their reputation most certainly proceeds them. Other review sites regularly praise CMC and score them highly for their solid and trustworthy reputation.
As well as creating our own CMC Markets review, we also took a look at other customer reviews, on websites such as Trustpilot, in order to form a greater overall picture of their reputation. In general CMC are praised for their honesty, platform’s usability and ease of use and education for new traders.
To summarise our CMC Markets review, we think this is a safe and well regulated platform that could be appealing to both new and advanced traders, though it isn’t without its flaws. CMC’s main shortcomings are characterised more by what it lacks, than problems with what it has. With CMC, clients don’t have the option to own any real stock or digital assets, however their CFD trading options are good, have low fees and new traders can get educated before diving in. With the option of the CMC Alpha account, professional and high end trainers have a slick platform with excellent one-to-one service.
We’d recommend at least giving the demo version of this platform a go if you’re in anway interested in trading. Before we go however, we must once again warn new traders about the risks involved when getting into trading.
Trading financial products carries a high risk to your capital, especially trading leverage products such as CFDs. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
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