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Markets.com: Everything you should know

Markets.com review

Are you a trader looking for a reliable online broker with impeccable features and a variety of account options you can leverage to trade the forex market profitably? You won’t go wrong giving Markets.com a try. This broker was established in 2008 and is a subsidiary of Finalto, an arm of Playtech PLC. 

One thing differentiating Markets.com from many brokers on the market is that they offer five region-specific account types for customers in South Africa, Europe, the UK, Australia, and other regions. Unfortunately, because of regulatory jurisdiction, the company isn’t able to offer its services to customers in Canada, Singapore, the USA, Japan, and Belgium. 

Since kicking off operations in 2008, the company has built an enviable reputation and record. They are lauded for their excellent trading options and stable platform. They have even won awards for Best Forex Brokers

Who should use Markets.com?

Whether you’re just starting your forex trading journey or have been trading for a while, you’ll love all of the brilliant features and functionalities provided by Markets.com. The broker has excellent tools and an analysis section where traders will find helpful resources, including news feeds, analysis reports, bloggers’ opinions, market summaries, and insider updates on what’s happening in different markets. 

Markets.com technical analysis features include important information like advanced charting, market signals, along with commentary from the company’s highly experienced trading advisory team. 

As of right now, Markets.com is regulated in five financial jurisdictions. Just so you know, these financial jurisdiction includes two tier-1 regulators. Thanks to being regulated within five financial jurisdictions, including the UK, the EU, South Africa, the British Virgin Islands, and Australia, Markets.com ensures clients’ funds are segregated. Also, we would love to add that the extent of investor compensation is different across their various jurisdictions. 

Top Recommended Platforms

MIN. DEPOSIT

$50

EXCL. OFFER

USER RATING

9.8

4.9/5

78% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

MIN. DEPOSIT

$100

EXCL. OFFER

USER RATING

9.7

4.8/5

Trading forex or CFDs on margin involves a high degree of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you may suffer a loss equal to or greater than your entire investment.

MIN. DEPOSIT

$250

EXCL. OFFER

USER RATING

9.6

4.5/5

CFDs are complex instruments and involve a high risk of losing money quickly because of the leverage effect. 68% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Another thing we would love to point out is that its leverage limits vary across the company’s various financial jurisdictions and account types. At the moment, Markets.com offers leverages up to 1:300. 

Customers under ASIC, CySEC, and FCA regulatory jurisdiction can only access leverage of 1:30, and this is because of regulatory restrictions. Also, keep in mind that leverage limits offered by Markets.com vary by asset class. Nonetheless, forex enjoys the highest rations. 

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What makes Markets.com stand out from many competitors is the compensation protection, and leverage limits the company’s offers. 

Who regulates Markets.com

As we mentioned right from the get-go, Markets.com is regulated by top financial regulators, including two tier-one financial regulators. Some of the top regulators regulating the activities of Markets.com include:

  • Financial Conduct Authority (UK) 
  • Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (Cyprus)
  • British Virgin Islands Finacial Services Commission BVI FSC
  • Australian Securities and Investment Commission ASIC (Australia) 
  • Financial Sector Conduct Authority (South Africa)

Markets.com account types

Unlike other brokers who offer multiple account types, Markets.com has just one account type, which it calls, the Standard account. All subsidiaries can open a professional account provided they meet certain criteria. The company also talks about a premium account option but fails to provide enough details about this. So if you’re interested in knowing what you get with their premium account option, we recommend reaching out to the broker. 

Before opting for the Markets.com Standard account, it’s important to ask yourself these salient questions. 

  • Do I prefer short-term trading?
  • Do I love the long-term approach? 

Answering these questions will help you make an informed decision. =

That said, here are some of our observations regarding Markets.com account type options:

  • If you like to trade via MT4 and MT5, you’ll have to get used to incurring higher trading fees, especially if you are trading other financial instruments other than forex. Because of this, most people prefer manual trading or Markets.com proprietary trading platform as they attract minimal fees. 

 

  • UK-based traders on the Markets.com platform can opt for the tax-free spread betting account. 

 

  • Markets.com doesn’t currently offer MAM/PAMM accounts, which is quite a shame, especially considering other brokers like eToro already provide the feature. 

 

  • Markets.com offer Islamic and corporate accounts, making it a brilliant option for traders who love this feature. 

 

  • With Markets.com, traders are allowed to scalp. 

 

  • With Markets.com, traders can place buy-stop or sell-stop orders within one hour of financial data release for an asset. 

 

  • Markets.com doesn’t currently allow traders to use Expert Advisors or auto trading to pick out off-market pricing. 

 

  • With Markets.com, traders can execute arbitrage trading. 

Markets.com Demo account

Markets.com has a robust demo account you can leverage to sharpen your trading skills. And guess what, there are no limits to the number of demo accounts you can open on this platform. More importantly, traders leveraging the Markets.com demo account feature can trade with virtual funds up to $10,000. 

At this point, we would like to caution that Markets.com demo trading promotes wrong trading behavior, especially among newbies. This is because the demo trading balance is a bit excessive. More so, it tends to create unrealistic trading expectations. 

Markets.com trading fees

Markets.com trading fees aren’t all that bad, especially when you compare them with what you get with other brokers. For starters, Markets.com has very high trading fees, especially for forex pairs. On the flip side, their CFD fees are average.

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We understand that it can sometimes be hard to compare trading fees for a CFD broker, but guess what, we were able to arrive at these fees by calculating all the fees of a typical trade for a specific product. 

To give you a correct figure, we chose three popular instruments across different asset classes, including:

  • Stock index CFDs: SPX and EUSTX50
  • Stocks CFDs: Apple and Vodafone
  • Forex: EURUSD, AUDUSD, EURGBP, GBPUSD, EURCHF. 

A typical trade would involve buying a leveraged position and holding it for a week before selling. As per volume, we decided to opt for a $2,000 position for the stock index and CFDs. For forex transactions, we chose a $20,000 position. Here are the leverage we used: 

  • 20:1 for stocks index CFDs
  • 5:1 for stocks CFDs
  • 30:1 for forex. 

Keep in mind that catch-all benchmark fees are included commission, spreads along with financing costs for all brokers. Now that we have provided you with a detailed background, here is our verdict as it relates to Market.com fees.

CFD fees 

When it comes to CFD fees, Markets.com charges an average fee. 

Forex fees

Forex fees on Markets.com are high compared to other brokers.

Non-trading fees

One of the things we love about Markets.com is that they don’t charge traders non-trading fees, and that’s because the platform doesn’t have account, deposit, or withdrawal fees. 

On the flip side, they charge an inactivity fee of $10. This kicks in after three months of inactivity. 

Mobile trading platforms

Markets.com has a user-friendly, clean, intuitive, and well-designed app with an excellent search function along with price alerts. Unfortunately, their mobile app doesn’t have a Touch/Face ID login or two-step authentication. 

Besides Markets.com’s proprietary mobile trading platform, they also allow traders to use MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. 

That said, we find their mobile trading app incredible. More so, their mobile app is available for Android and iOS. 

Another thing we would love to add at this point is that the mobile trading platform supports multiple languages. 

The markets.com mobile trading platform looks pretty much like the web platform, with almost the same features. The best part is that you can navigate the app with ease. 

Desktop trading platform 

Markets.com has a brilliant desktop trading platform that is practical and easy to use. The broker’s desktop trading platform is provided by MetaTrader. We love MetaTrader because it is easily customizable. More so, it allows traders to set price alerts and execute other functionalities. 

Using the MetaTrader trading platform, traders can access many impeccable indicators that make technical analysis a stroll in the park. More importantly, you get access to live news feeds, price alerts, and other important features that will make your trading easy. 

Supported trading instruments

Markets.com supports a variety of financial instruments, including CFDs, forex, and real stocks. That said, the platform doesn’t currently support popular asset classes like options, future, or 

 

Most of the financial instruments available on Markets.com aren’t very different from what you find on brokers like Plus500 or FXTM. And yes, Markets.com also supports a few cryptocurrencies. 

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Unfortunately, because of regulatory limitations, Markets.com cannot offer crypto CFDs to traders in the UK. So if you’re in the UK and looking to trade crypto CFDs, we suggest you check with other brokers. 

The only caveat with using a platform like Markets.com is that traders aren’t allowed to change the default leverage of a product. This isn’t cool, especially for traders who may sometime want to tweak available leverages to lower their risks per trade manually. So when trading CFDs, we strongly recommend being careful, especially when using brokers with preset leverage levels. 

Let us quickly add that Markets.com offers CFD blends. These CFDs blends are organized along themes like Brexit losses, Brexit winners, or Cryptoblend. 

Real stocks

Real stocks provided by Markets.com are available for traders onboarded under CySEC. Markets.com’s Marketsi platform is dedicated to offering real stocks and investing. The company’s real stocks include stocks from US and European markets. Unfortunately, the platform doesn’t support stocks from global exchanges such as those from Singapore, Australia, and Canada. 

Research 

Besides providing access to robust trading tools, we love that Markets.com publishes market commentary. This gives traders an insight into expert opinions. Their educational resources cover a variety of financial topics. 

Markets.com has a proprietor financial live streaming service. This provides newbies with the best value. In addition to that, there are tons of free webinars dedicated to helping traders sharpen their trading skills. 

Unfortunately, compared to other trading platforms like eToro.com, Markets.com’s research resources are substandard. 

If you’re looking to improve your trading knowledge significantly, we advise you to leverage additional information from third-party sources. 

Customer support

Markets.com has a very responsive customer support team that works around the clock responding to customer questions and resolving complaints. Besides their live chat function, which you can use to resolve issues on the spot, they also have email support with a quick response time. 

The platform also has an important feature called Fraud Watch. It helps alert traders about spoof e-mails and fake websites. More so, traders on the platform also get a dedicated compliant section. 

Bonuses and promotions

As of the time of putting together this Markets.com review, the platform doesn’t offer bonuses or promotions. However, the platform provides some incentives and loyalty rewards to customers in the British Virgin Islands and Australia. 

Final thoughts 

While many online brokers only provide limited trading instruments and charge several hidden fees, Markets.com does the complete opposite, and that’s because they have zero commission. Additionally, they offer competitive spreads and have a pretty transparent price structure. 

What’s even more exciting about Markets.com is the wide variety of trading instruments they provide. And more importantly, they are regulated by top-tier financial regulators in several jurisdictions. 

Although they have rich educational resources, their educational resources aren’t as robust as what you find on other brokerage platforms. 

If you’re looking for a low-risk broker with robust features and functionalities designed to improve your trading experience greatly, you’ll love Markets.com. 

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