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Alison Heyerdahl is the Head of Content at FxScouts and a financial writer with extensive experience 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 to help traders make informed, safe decisions.
In the fast-paced world of forex trading, choosing the right broker is crucial. HFM and Trading 212 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 HFM and Trading 212 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 HFM and Trading 212, 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. We also consider numerous factors when deciding which tier a regulator belongs to. Regulators that we rank as the world’s top regulators, gets a tier 1 rank, while regulators who only scores a tier 5-rank, provide virtually no regulatory oversight. The more top-tier authorities regulating a broker, the higher its trust rating. Read more about regulation and our tier system here.
In our comparison:
Based on these findings, Trading 212 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 HFM has overall lower trading costs than Trading 212.
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 HFM and Trading 212 offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. Trading 212 offers a greater variety of instruments compared to HFM:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, HFM offers 40 cryptocurrencies, while Trading 212 offers 0 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 neither HFM nor Trading 212 charges a withdrawal fee. Overall, HFM has better deposit and withdrawal processes than Trading 212.Â
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.Â
HFM has better educational support than Trading 212. Both HFM and Trading 212 offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that HFM offers better research analysis than Trading 212 and that both HFM and Trading 212 offer frequent webinars.
HFM (formerly known as HotForex) is a well-known international broker. It offers six standard accounts and one specialised copy trading account. Four of its six standard accounts have no minimum deposit requirements and extremely competitive trading fees. All accounts are available as Islamic accounts. We were also pleased to find that HFM has recently reintroduced cryptocurrency trading, no doubt because of the asset's popularity. This is alongside an excellent range of trading instruments.
HFM supports the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms in addition to its own mobile HF 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.
Please Note: Although Trading212 accepts traders from the Philippines, traders will be put on a waiting list.
A well-regulated broker, Trading212 appeals to traders looking for a large number of tradable assets and a simple account structure. However, traders should be aware that Trading212 is primarily a low-cost stock broker and that its CFD spreads are significantly wider than other brokers.
With over 1800 financial instruments, including over 180 Forex pairs, commodities, equities, ETFs, and indices, Trading212 offers a much wider range of tradable instruments than other similar brokers.
Trading is only offered on the Trading212 platform, which has a simple and intuitive interface, but does not have the execution speeds of third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 and does not have algorithmic trading capabilities. Trading212 also only offers one live commission-free account, with a minimum deposit of 10 USD, but spreads that average at 2.40 pips on the EUR/USD, making it an uncompetitive offer.Â
Educational and market analysis materials are also limited, making it a poor choice for beginner traders, but it does offer a free, unlimited demo account. Additionally, customer service is only available via a ticketing system, and its response times are extremely slow.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of HFM and Trading 212.
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Broker | Countries Regulated | Minimum Spread EUR/USD | Minimum Deposit | Trading cost/lot EURUSD Total trading cost at the time of last update, for 1 lot of EUR/USD using the account with the lowest minimum deposit. Includes spread and commission. | Broker Score | Broker Website | Select and Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |   | 0.10 pips | USD 3 | USD 7 | |||
 |     | 0 pips | USD 0 | USD 10 | |||
 | | 0.10 pips | USD 200 | USD 8 | |||
 |  | 0.70 pips | USD 10 | USD 17 | |||
 |  | 0 pips | AUD 0 | USD 4.50 | |||
 |    | 0.90 pips | USD 100 | USD 9 | |||
|  | 0.60 pips | USD 5 | USD 6 | |||
 | | 0 pips | USD 0 | USD 10 | |||
 | | 0.70 pips | USD 5 | USD 7 | |||
 | | 0 pips | USD 100 | USD 6 |
Select another broker to another broker to compare features, fees, and platforms side by side.
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.
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