CMC Markets Review 2024: A Trusted Broker?

CMC Markets is an internationally regulated broker with an army of clients in the UK, Australia, Canada and 70+ other countries.

This regulated online broker offers 11,000+ contracts-for-difference (CFD) and spread betting instruments for both retail and professional traders.

Read on to learn the specifics and how you can get started with CMC Markets.

Note: CMC Markets does NOT accept clients from the US.

CMC Pros & Cons

CMC Markets Overview

In a hurry? Here’s a brief on what CMC Markets offers:

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Where Does CMC Markets Operate?

CMC Markets operates in a total of 70+ countries around the world, including the UK, Australia, Germany, Singapore, Spain, New Zealand, France, Italy, Ireland, and Norway.

The company also has offices in 12 countries, with its main headquarters in London. The broker’s website is available in nine languages — English, French, Spanish, Austrian, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, and Italian.

CMC Markets is regulated by four international financial governing bodies:

• Financial Services Authority (FCA) — regulated by the FCA as CMC Markets UK plc (173730) and CMC Spreadbet plc (170627), the company is authorized to operate in the UK and more than a dozen other countries like Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, and Finland.
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) — CMC Markets Asia Pacific Pty Ltd is licensed under 238054 by ASIC and is legally entitled to operate in Australia and other countries in the Asia Pacific region.
• Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) — the subsidiary CMC Markets Germany GmBH may operate in Germany and select other European countries under the BaFin license 154814.
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) — under the licensing number UEN 200605050E, CMC Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd. is regulated by the MAS.

All of the above regulatory agencies ensure that clients’ funds are held in a separate, protected account from the commercial funds of CMC Markets.

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CMC Markets Account Types

When you register with CMC Markets, you can choose between two retail account types (Spread Betting or CFD trading), a corporate account, a semi-professional account (Alpha), or a professional account.

All accounts get access to 11,000+ trading instruments, consisting of:

• 330+ forex pairs
• 80+ indices
• 100+ commodities
• 9,000+ shares
• 50+ treasuries
• 30:1 maximum leverage
• Fractional trades
• Over-the-phone trading
• Reuters and Morningstar data feed
• Webinars, market insight, and in-depth educational material

Aside from Corporate and Professional account holders, all traders get access to a demo account with trial funds. Demo account holders can switch to a live account from the demo dashboard, without having to re-register.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the differences between the Spread Betting, CFD, and Corporate accounts:

*Individual circumstances may result in eligibility to account for Capital Gains Tax

CMC Markets Professional Account

In addition to the standard account features listed above, the following features are only available for those with a professional account:

• Derivatives trading on 15+ cryptocurrencies
• Short-duration trades from as short as 30 seconds (CMC countdowns)
• 500:1 maximum leverage
• Cash rebates with the exception of shares

To meet the requirements of opening a professional account, traders need to have:

• Placed at least 10 relevant, significantly sized trades in the last active quarter
• A financial portfolio of at least £500,000 in value
• At least one year’s worth of experience in the financial sector

Note that professional clients are exempt from negative balance protection.

CMC Alpha Account

In 2022, CMC Markets launched an incentive account, the Alpha account. It’s for traders with a higher than average balance who do not yet meet professional account requirements.

To become eligible for an Alpha account, traders need to have a minimum account balance of £25,000. This can be through a single deposit or accumulated from prior trades and smaller deposits.

CMC Markets then sends an invitation for Alpha Membership via e-mail.

The benefits include:

• 5% to 28.6% discount on spreads, based on a trade volume tier system
• Priority customer support
• Free premium Financial Times subscription
• Access to exclusive webinars, roundtables, and online events

Tiered spread discounts are as follows, but vary by instrument:

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What Can You Trade With CMC Markets?

There are two ways you can trade online with CMC Markets: contracts-for-difference (CFDs) and spread betting. Both are a form of derivatives trading, where you don’t own the underlying asset.

As for asset categories, you can trade CFDs and place spread bets on:

• 330+ Forex Pairs
• 100+ Commodities
• 19+ Cryptocurrencies (not available to UK retail traders)
• 9,000+ Shares
• 1,000+ ETFs
• 80+ Indices
• 50+ Treasuries

Share Baskets are also available to trade, pre-categorized into groups like ‘Big Tech’, ‘SaaS’, ‘Robotics’, and more.

The maximum leverage of 30:1 applies to all retail traders speculating on these instruments.

Forex

You can speculate on forex pairs via cash trades, or forwards trades. Forwards trades mean that you’re assuming the price of a forex pair at a given future date.

The list of 330+ forex instruments includes pairs like:

Commodities

These are some of the commodities you can trade as part of the 100+ line-up on CMC Markets:

Shares, Share Baskets, & ETF CFDs

You can trade share CFDs from companies listed in 20+ countries. Here are some of the most popular of the 9,000+ listed shares by sector:

• Technology: Roku Inc, BT Group, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft, IBM
• Banking: Lloyds Banking, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, HSBC, Natwest Group PLC
• ETFs: iShares MSCI Emerging Markets, Lyxor ETF FTSE Athex 20, iShares FTSE 250 UCITS ETF, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond, SPDR S&P 500
• Consumer & Retail: Alibaba Group Holding, Netflix Inc, ASOS, McDonald’s, Adidas AG
• Share Baskets: Big Tech, Streaming, Gaming, UK Banks, Automation & Robotics

Note that share baskets operate as indices — a group of company shares is aggregately tracked to determine the performance of the share basket.

Indices

• Europe: UK 100, Germany 40, France 40, Netherlands 25, Euro 50, Spain 35, Sweden 30
• North America: US 30, US SPX 500, NDAQ 100, Canada 60, US Small Cap 2000
• Other: Australia 200, Hong Kong 50, Japan 225, Hong Kong China H-Shares, South Africa 40

Treasury Bonds

• US: US T-Note 10 Year, US T-Bond, US T-Note 5 Year, US T-Note 2 Year
• Europe: UK Gilt, Euro Bund, Euro Buxl, Euro Schatz, Euro Bobl

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Fees & Funding

CMC Markets has varying fee structures and funding processes depending on which region you’re trading in. The below fees and funding guides apply to UK traders.

If you’re trading from elsewhere, head over to cmcmarkets.com and see what fees apply for your locality.

CMC Markets Fees

Here is an overview of fees you may encounter while trading with CMC Markets.

Spreads

For every trade you make with CMC Markets, the instrument has a spread. A spread is the difference between the Buy and Sell price, by which CMC Markets makes money.

You can have fixed or variable spreads — in the case of CMC Markets, spreads vary and are provided as a minimum for each instrument.

To calculate the spread of the instrument you want to trade with CMC Markets, use the following formula:

Buy Price – Sell Price = Spread

Spreads are either given as points or pips. Since CMC Markets offers variable spreads, head over to CMC Markets’ website for up-to-date data.

Share Trading Fees

Trading share CFDs with CMC Markets means you’re eligible for a commission on top of the instrument’s spread.

Here is the commission structure for share CFDs, based on the country from which the company share originates:

You’re also charged an additional spread on share CFDs, however, this is already included in Buy/Sell price you see on the platform.

Other Costs

• Overnight Holding Fee: If you have open positions after 5 p.m EST, your positions may be charged an overnight holding fee. Holding costs vary based on the instrument, direction of your trade as well as other market factors, so they’re not fixed.
• Rollover Cost: Only applicable to forwards contracts when you exercise the choice to extend the duration of the forwards contract beyond it’s expiry date.
• Guaranteed Stop-Loss Fee: In the event of opening a trade with a guaranteed stop-loss, you pay a premium for the broker’s guarantee to close your positon irrespective of market volatility and gapping.
• Inactivity Fee: A monthly deduction of £10 from dormant accounts (inactive for 12 months or longer). If the account has no funds, you won’t be charged.

One more fee you may encounter is a market data fee that’s paid monthly. If you subscribe, you get additional data on instruments you want to trade.

Here are the applicable market data fees for traders from other nations:

*Excluding local tax

**Not free for professional traders

Deposits & Withdrawals

See these guidelines for key information on deposits and withdrawals.

CMC Markets Deposit Guide

As for deposits, you can fund your CMC Markets account via:

• Debit/Credit Card: Maximum deposit limit of £50,000. Potential charges here are cash advances for credit card payments, or other bank charges in unique instances like overdraft limit breach.
• Bank Transfer: When using a bank transfer, ensure you enter the correct payment reference so that the funds arrive in your trading account.
• PayPal: Only available for individual retail accounts and professional accounts — corporate and joint accounts are excluded.

CMC Markets does NOT charge deposit fees for UK traders, but your bank might do. There is no minimum deposit amount.

CMC Markets Withdrawal Guide

Here are the withdrawal specifications for the three funding methods:

• Debit/Credit Card: Maximum limit of £40,000. Can take from anywhere between an hour to five working days (depending on the card issuer).
• Bank Transfer: No maximum limit. Domestic transfer take 1-2 working days. International transfers take 3-5 working days.
• PayPal: Maximum withdrawal of £10,000. Takes 1-2 working days.

CMC Markets does NOT charge for withdrawals, with the exception of £15 for express international bank transfers.

All deposits and withdrawals can be made under the ‘Funding’ tab on the desktop platform or mobile app. Your account will show you your:

• Available Amount: The total amount you can collectively withdraw from your CMC Markets account.
• Withdrawal Limit: The net amount you may withdraw to your chosen payment destination.

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Mobile & Desktop Platform Review

We have split the CMC Markets platform review into six sections, both for mobile and desktop. Mobile apps are available on Android and iOS devices.

On desktop, traders can use CMC’s standard CFD trading and spread betting platforms, or MetaTrader 4 (MT4). This platform review uses the CMC Android trading app and standard CFD and spread betting trading platforms as an example.

• Trading Execution: All desktop features have been fitted onto a mobile screen to produce a compact trading ticket. Mobile traders can choose the purchase rate, set Stop-Loss and/or Take-Profit limits. The trade ticket is transparent with a clearly shown position margin, spread cost, and overnight holding cost (where applicable). What may be confusing for some traders is the alternative color coding of the Sell (yellow) and Buy (blue) options — these we tend to see as red and green. Once you place a trade, you’re shown an order confirmation with the transaction ID, asset, units, and agreed price.

• Position Management: Under the ‘Positions’ tab, you can see all your current positions. As standard, your order value, starting price, margin, P/L, units, and currency conversion rate (if applicable) are shown for each asset. You can modify the Stop-Loss and Take-Profit limits for active trades by clicking the ‘✏️’ icon in the corresponding row. Outstanding orders that haven’t yet been filled are shown under the ‘Orders’ tab.

• Charting Tools & Analytics: Technical indicators like MACD, variations of RSI, and several others are available. SMA, EMA, WMA, and Bollinger Bands are just some of the overlays you can also use on both desktop and mobile. Drawing tools from basic trendlines to range and channel lines are also easily accessible on the go. As with the trade ticket, the mobile charting feature matches it’s fully featured desktop predecessor. Trading insight, news feeds, and calendar-schedhuled events are also accessible from your mobile device.

• Asset Browsing: In the product library, assets are split into categories of commodities, currencies, ETFs, forex indices, indices, share baskets, shares, and treasuries. You can also apply topical filters like Top Movers and Popular Products. Further asset filters include cash/forwards products, industry, and the region to which the instrument is allocated to. More, you can create pre-set or custom watchlists.

• Platform Customizability: The CMC Markets mobile app allows you to customize your homepage with custom rows, like a particular asset, category, news feed, or watchlist On desktop, there are blocks that allow you to resize and shuffle tabs around as you please, where tabs can even overlap one another. The watchlists are convenient to use on both mobile and desktop, with individual navigation menus to switch from one list to another. Traders who prefer notifications have no shortage of heavily customizable alerts to toggle.

• Educational Material: From platform guides, a trading library, webinars, and a dedicated forex trading guide, anyone with access to the CMC Markets website has access to the e-learning material on both mobile and desktop. There are further articles on cryptocurrencies, the emergence of blockchain technology, along with the vast selection of news and market insight features within the platform.

• Customer Support: On mobile, the customer support option takes you to a responsive web page with a regional address, telephone number, e-mail, and support ticket option. As for live support, you can get immediate help and chat with someone via the desktop platform’s ‘My Account’ menu. FAQs and a knowledgebase are also available on the website.

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Final Verdict

Aside from the ambiguous free-floating fee structure, CMC Markets offers one of the most customizable trading dashboards on mobile and desktop today.

The product range is plentiful for new traders as well as professionals.

With ample research on what fees you’re subject to, CMC Markets is a broker with a 30+ year company track record and a well-built internationally recognized platform.

FAQs

Is CMC Markets safe?

CMC Markets is an internationally regulated online broker, based in the United Kingdom. The company has 12 branches worldwide and is licensed under the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin). Traders from the UK are also covered under the FSCS protection scheme up to £85,000 in individual and up to £170,000 in joint accounts.

What fees does CMC Markets charge?

Since CMC Markets operates in 70+ countries with different regulatory guidelines and varying products offered in particular regions, fees vary. However, overnight trading fees, inactivity fees, and spreads are charged as standard by the broker. In jurisdictions where CMC Markets offers real shares, a commission is charged. Other fees that may apply to Retail CFD and Corporate account holders are additional market data fees.

How do I withdraw money from CMC Market?

You can withdraw funds from CMC Markets in two ways: a debit/credit card, or bank transfer. You can only withdraw funds to a debit/credit card if you have used that card as a funding method within the last 12 months. Otherwise, you may only use bank transfers. The destination account must be under your name and withdrawals can be expected to be processed the same day, provided they’re made before 2 p.m. (GMT).

What is the inactivity fee for CMC Markets?

A dormant account inactivity charge of £10 is charged by CMC Markets within the first two working days of each month, in the event of available funds and no trading activity in the account for a period of one year. To avoid inactivity fees, CMC Markets traders need to proceed with one of the following options:

1. Close the account
2. Resume trading with live funds
3. Ensure that the account has zero balance

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