Summary

Founded in 1989 by Peter Cruddas, CMC Markets reached multiple milestones over the past 30 years, while the company grew into a global leading in retail trading.

Started out as Currency Management Corporation the companys title after a few years was abbreviated to CMC when it first started trading in London, the office had a single telephone, an entrepreneur, trader and one desk.

More expansion followed in 2000 when the company expanded and became a CFD broker, and by 2001 an online financial spread betting service was added, while CMC Markets was the first to launch daily rolling cashbets, which became an industry benchmark.

CMC Markets opened its Sydney office in 2002, which was the first of its international offices and with more expansion in 2007, additional offices included Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Singapore, when 10% of CMCs equity stakes were sold to Goldman Sachs.

CMC Markets offers award-winning services such as forex trading and 59,165 spread betting, while it also provides traders with almost 10, 000 CFD instruments, and an extensive range of forex pairs and competitive spreads.

CMC Markets offer a demo account offering no risk virtual funds, enabling new traders to get used to online trading across all platforms.

This is a great way to practice and get familiar with different trading techniques and strategies, although the demo accounts do not offer displays of CFD or spread bets prices.

CMC Markets offers forex trading with more than 330 FX pairs and spreads from 0.7 points including USD/EUR, while the pairs are split into three groups including emerging, minor and major.

Broker Information

User Rating
Leverage 500:1
Instruments 10042
Platforms
Account Types Demo Account, Low Value or Micro Account, Standard Accounts,
Account Currency
Commissions Variable Spreads
Founded 1989
Customer Support Single Language Phone Support, Single Language Live Chat, Single Language Email Support,
Min Funding $1
Regulation
Funding Methods
  • CMC Markets
  • CMC Markets

Introduction

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Founded in 1989 by Peter Cruddas, CMC Markets reached multiple milestones over the past 30 years, while the company grew into a global leading in retail trading. Started out as Currency Management Corporation the company’s title after a few years was abbreviated to CMC when it first started trading in London, the office had a single telephone, an entrepreneur, trader and one desk. Within record time the company enjoyed massive success, rapidly grew, and launched its first international online FX trading platform in 1996.

More expansion followed in 2000 when the company expanded and became a CFD broker, and by 2001 an online financial spread betting service was added, while CMC Markets was the first to launch daily rolling cashbets, which became an industry benchmark. CMC Markets opened its Sydney office in 2002, which was the first of its international offices and with more expansion in 2007, additional offices included Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden and Singapore, when 10% of CMC’s equity stakes were sold to Goldman Sachs. More international growth followed and within a couple of years new offices were opened in Italy, Spain, Norway and France was the twelfth office.

One of the major highlights for CMC Market followed in 2010 when the company launched its Next Generation platform and since the trader has added a variety of features, new tools and enhancements to its award-winning platform. One of the most exciting celebrations followed in 2014 when the CMC Group received a record number of awards and celebrated its 25th anniversary. An increase of 61% in underlying profits was announced in 2015 totalling $51.9 million before tax, while its goal to expand into eastern Europe followed and the office in Warsaw was the 14th office opened by the company. CMC Markets trading as CMCX was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2016 with a capitalisation of $693 million, by the 20th of June 2016, the company was also included for the first time on the FTSE 250 index. The company released Prime FX in May 2017, and with it, a new education office was opened in May 2017 in Shanghai. CMC Markets now caters to the needs of more than 60,000 traders worldwide via its fifteen offices across Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Licensing & Regulation

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CFDs and spread bets are quite complexed and come with high risk, which is the reason why CMC Markets strongly suggests that anyone new to trading understand the concept. CMC Spreadbet plc and CMC Markets UK plc are regulated and authorised in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority. Online chat and telephone calls are monitored and recorded while iPad, iPhone and Apple are Apple INC trademarks registered in the United States and other countries. Android is trademarked by Google Inc, while the App Store is an Apple Inc trademark.

Mobile Trading

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CMC Markets iPhone trading app enables clients to trade from anywhere, anytime via its award-winning and powerful app, offering access to real-time mobile charting, live streaming prices, a full order ticket functionality, highly customisable dashboard and notification centre. The Android trading app also enables traders 24/7 access to their accounts as well as CFD and spread betting. The award-winning Android trading app allows customisation of the trade and dashboard range while it also offers live streaming prices, several mobile alerts and flawless operation via its powerful charting technology.

The iPhone dashboard offers a customisable homepage that can be arranged according to each trader’s unique requirements via repositioning, tile removal, layouts, resizing, and repositioning to ensure the client enjoys the best possible trading strategy. Instant mobile notification enables iPhone and Android users to enable breaking news, the market calendar, and price-mover alerts, in order to be alerted via push, in-app, email or SMS. Mobile optimised charts offer a range of customisable and indicator chart extensions enabling traders to project future analysis. In-app education provides mobile traders with a wide range of educational material on trading and webinars can also be accessed via mobile, while trading strategy videos are also available. Due to fingerprint authentication, both the Android and iPhone app offers instant access to markets, while ensuring clients enjoy complete security.

Brand & Functionality

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CMC Markets offers award-winning services such as forex trading and 59,165 spread betting, while it also provides traders with almost 10, 000 CFD instruments, and an extensive range of forex pairs and competitive spreads. As a CMC Market client, you have access to more than 300 global currencies, major indices, as well as commodities such as silver, gold and oil and shares, is available in more than 9,000 companies, while treasuries include bonds and gilts.

CMC Markets offers reliable and competitive pricing, tight spreads irrespective of market volatility and attractive spreads from o.7 points on USE/EUR, 1-point indices, Germany 30 and UK 100 and on Gold 0.3 points. Margin rates for forex start at 3.3%, commodities and indices for 5% and shares 20%. In Forex over 9,000 markets are made available via CMC, while traders also have access to 110 commodities, and 50 treasuries.

Registration Process

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CMC Markets offer a demo account offering no risk virtual funds, enabling new traders to get used to online trading across all platforms. This is a great way to practice and get familiar with different trading techniques and strategies, although the demo accounts do not offer displays of CFD or spread bets prices. In order to open a demo account, you will need to provide your phone number, full name and a valid address, while the account can be used only once it is verified via the activation links send via email. Live accounts can be opened via the “live account” option or by following the instructions from the demo account. Demo accounts remain open even after registering for a live account. Account registration takes 60 seconds, and you can authorise another person to trade on your behalf, multiple spread betting accounts or CFD accounts can be arranged with the company.

Depositing Process

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Once your new account is registered and verified via the email link, you will need to deposit funds before trading can commence. CMC offers a wide variety of methods to fund accounts including credit cards, debit cards, and transferring funds, while cash deposits and cheques are not accepted, Diners Cards and AMEX is also not accepted, while charges may occur on bank transfers from outside the United Kingdom. All cards registered on the account are protected via 3D secure verified by the MasterCard or Visa secure code.

Product Offering

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CMC Markets services cover a broad range of markets including indices, commodities, spreads, forex, shares and treasuries. The FX forex pairs are available on both CFD and Spread bet trade and include USD/EUR, USD/GBP, JPY/USD, USD/AUD, GBP/EUR, USD/EUR, USD/GBP and JPY/USD. Cryptocurrency trading includes USD/Ethereum, USD/Bitcoin Cash, USD/Litecoin, USD/Ripple as well as USD/Bitcoin. Price movement trading such as spread betting or CFD is available on indices, while over 90 forward and cash indices include US30, UK 100 and Germany 30. Traders get the opportunity to speculate on more than 100 forward and cash commodities such as natural gas, silver, gold, and West and Brent Texas crude oil. The shares market available form more than 23 countries include Sainsbury’s, Facebook, Apple, Lloyds, Barclays, and Tesco. Treasuries include bunds, gilts and bonds, with spreads starting on 1 point for Short Sterling, Schatz and Euribor.

Trade Execution

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CMC Markets offers forex trading with more than 330 FX pairs and spreads from 0.7 points including USD/EUR, while the pairs are split into three groups including emerging, minor and major. The major pairs contain USD as a counter or the base currency, and these are the most often traded. Major pairs include USD/CAD, EUR/USD and USD/GBP. The minor group include currencies such as GBP/EUR, JPY/GBP and CHF/EUR and never USD, while the emerging group offer more exotic pairs such as CZK/EUR, HKD/USD AND USD/NOK.

Banking

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Withdrawing funds are easy via the “withdrawal” tab and live chat, or telephonic assistance is always available. Proof of identity is required before withdrawals will be processed and must be submitted before the 11 am cut off time for non-UK-withdrawals or 2 pm for UK-based withdrawals. No funds will be refunded via MasterCard’s, and it is best to arrange all withdrawals via support.

Customer Support

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Apart from live chat, telephone and email support, CMC Markets also assist and educate clients via online events, webinars as well as tutorials and trading basic articles available online. Membership also offers access to a library of videos, analyst articles, and several beginners tutorials.

Trading Tools

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CMC Markets offers both CFD and spread betting while trading tools include multiple layouts, module linking, client sentiment analysis a pattern recognition scanner. Sentiment analysis data offers valuable insights, is updated by the minute and clients have access to real-time information. Data can be viewed for open position clients, and traders can view the data of others that have enjoyed an overall profit in the last three months. In 2017, CMC Markets also launched a limited-risk CFD in France and announced its stockbroking partnerships with New Zealand’s ANZ.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 78% of retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting and/or trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. You do not own, or have any interest in, the underlying assets. We recommend that you seek independent advice and ensure you fully understand the risks involved before trading. Spreads may widen depending on liquidity and market volatility. The information on this website is prepared without considering your objectives, financial situation or needs. Consequently, you should consider the information in light of your objectives, financial situation and needs.