CMC Markets

Filipino traders will be onboarded by CMC Markets Bermuda Ltd, which offers leverage of 200:1 on Forex pairs but has fewer regulatory protection that CMC Markets entities based in the UK, Europe or Australia.

Regulatory Overview: Founded in 1989, CMC Markets is a globally recognised broker regulated by several financial authorities, including:

• The Bermuda Monetary Authority – CMC Markets Bermuda Ltd (Reg. 202302718)
• The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the UK – CMC Markets UK plc (FRN 173730) and CMC Spreadbet plc (FRN 170627)
• The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) – CMC Markets Asia Pacific Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 238054)
• The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – CMC Markets Singapore Pte Ltd (Capital Markets Services licence)
• The Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) of Germany – CMC Markets Germany GmbH (Reg. No. 154814)
• The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) – CMC Markets Middle East Limited (DFSA Ref. F002740)
• The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of New Zealand – CMC Markets NZ Limited (Derivatives Issuer, FSP41187)
• The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) – CMC Markets Canada Inc. (Investment Dealer)

Client Protection Measures: CMC Markets implements several measures to enhance client security:

• Segregation of Funds: Retail client money is held in segregated client bank accounts and reconciled daily under applicable client-asset rules.
• Negative Balance Protection: Provided for retail clients where required by local regulations (e.g., the UK, EU, and Australia), ensuring clients cannot lose more than their deposited funds.
• Compensation Schemes (where applicable): Coverage depends on the entity and jurisdiction (e.g., FSCS in the UK; CIPF membership via CIRO in Canada), subject to local eligibility rules and limits.

Overview: CMC Markets Bermuda Ltd provides access to a over 12,000 assets with competitively low margin requirements, including 300+ Forex pairs, 10,000+ global shares and range of indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies.

• Forex (leverage up to 1:200): Trade major and minor FX pairs such as AUD/USD, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, and USD/JPY with margin from 0.5%, and NZD/USD from 1%. This offers high effective leverage for active traders while scaling margin slightly higher on more volatile pairs.
• Metals, Commodities & Energy: Trade spot gold from a 0.5% margin, with silver at 1%. Energies such as West Texas and Brent crude, as well as gasoline and heating oil, require 5% margin, while natural gas is set at 6%. Industrial metals including palladium and platinum are set at 2%, and copper at 1%, reflecting their higher volatility versus FX and indices.
• Indices (up to 1:200): Access leading global indices such as the UK 100, US 30, Germany 40, US SPX 500, US NDAQ 100 at a competitive 0.5% margin. The Hong Kong 50 is available at 1.5% margin due to its higher risk profile. 
• Stock CFDs: Trade over 10,000 high-profile US shares such as Tesla Inc at 10% margin, and Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Meta Platforms Inc and Boeing Co at 5% margin. 
• Cryptocurrencies (up to 1:10): Crypto CFDs including Bitcoin (USD), Bitcoin Cash (USD), Ethereum (USD), and Litecoin (USD) are all available at a maximum leverage of around 1:10. This balances the extreme volatility of crypto with meaningful gearing for speculative traders.

Note: The above margin rates and indicative leverage levels apply to CMC Markets Bermuda Ltd and may be adjusted during periods of high volatility, around major economic events, or for unusually large position sizes.

CMC Markets’ accounts have no minimum deposit requirements, making them accessible to all traders. The account-opening process at CMC Markets is fully digital, and accounts are ready within a few hours, which is around the industry average.  

Overview: CMC Markets Bermuda Ltd offers two primary account types tailored to different trading needs: the Standard Account and the Fx Active Account. While both accounts provide access to the full suite of tradable markets, they differ in pricing structure, target audience, and platform availability. This allows traders to select an account that best aligns with their style—whether focused on simplicity or ultra-low FX spreads.

Standard Account

• Pricing Model: Spread-only pricing with no additional commissions.
• Typical Spreads: Competitive spreads across all asset classes, generally wider than the Fx Active raw-spread model.
• Ideal For: Newer traders, low- to medium-frequency traders, and anyone who prefers a straightforward pricing structure without commission calculations.
• Platform Availability: Available on all CMC platforms:
  • NextGen
  • MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
  • MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
  • TradingView

Key Benefits: Simple cost model, full market access, no commission complexity, and universal platform compatibility.

Fx Active Account

• Pricing Model: Commission-based with ultra-tight raw spreads, frequently as low as 0.0 pips on major FX pairs during high-liquidity hours.
• Typical FX Costs: Designed to deliver lower all-in FX costs for high-volume and spread-sensitive traders.
• Ideal For: Scalpers, day traders, algo traders, and anyone prioritising the tightest possible spreads.
• Platform Availability: Available only on:
  • NextGen
  • TradingView
  • Not available on: MT4, MT5

Key Benefits: Institutional-style pricing, enhanced transparency, and extremely competitive FX execution conditions for active traders.

Comparing the Two Accounts: The Standard Account is best for traders seeking simplicity and platform flexibility, while the Fx Active Account is purpose-built for high-frequency or cost-sensitive FX traders who need razor-thin spreads and are comfortable using NextGen or TradingView. Both accounts offer the same product range and leverage conditions but differ significantly in pricing effi

CMC offers support for MT4. MT5, TradingView 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 and MT5 Apps

The MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere, with nine timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. Functionality to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real-time, and tick chart trading further assists traders while on the move.

TradingView

TradingView is a world-renowned charting provider that delivers the financial markets from one platform and has the largest social trading community in the world. Combining Trading View with CMC Markets’ consistently tight spreads, rapid market execution, and institutional-grade liquidity, will help traders maximise their trading potential. 

CMC Markets supports both its award-winning, proprietary trading platform (Next Generation) and the industry-standards MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).  The advantage of brokers offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can take their own customised versions with them should they decide to migrate to another broker. 

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.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5)

The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time. It has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has more pending order types than MT4 and features an embedded chat system. In addition, the MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor and MT5 has more advanced charting tools than MT4.

Overall, CMC Markets offers an good range of platforms compared to other brokers, but the Next Generation is user-friendly and offers a number of impressive trading features.

TradingView

TradingView is not only a trading platform with detailed information to help you make trading decisions: it also includes one of the biggest social trading communities, with plenty of EAs (Expert Advisors) that beginner traders, or those too busy to trade manually, will appreciate. There’s a lot you can achieve with TradingView, but these are just a few of its advantages:

• Unmatched charting capabilities, suitable for beginners and advanced traders
• Large social trading community of more than 50 million users
• The ability to design your own indicators and strategies using TradingView’s Pine Script
  programming language
• The option to validate trading ideas using TradingView’s bar-by-bar replay function
• Wide selection of fundamental data
• Real-time global news coverage

Trading Tools

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

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 complete, a price projection box is generated to highlight potential price action movement.  

Module linking

This feature allows you to group different modules together so that when you change the product shown in one module, all the other grouped modules automatically update to show the new product. 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.

Trading Tools Comparison

Broker

Economic Calendar

Autochartist

Trading Central

Trading View

Free VPS

VPS services are usually offered free with a minimum trade volume, otherwise a monthly subscription fee will apply. VPS services are usually hosted by third-party companies.

CMC Markets

Yes

No

No

No

No

Exness

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

IC Markets

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

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. 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. 

We tested a deposit via credit card transfer, which was deposited instantly. We were also impressed to find that our withdrawal was processed within 24 hours. 

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 together 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 of 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 in conjunction 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.

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.  

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 X (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.

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.