As with the previous reviews that the review team had performed across other brokerages, the aim of its writing is to aid the readers and interested traders to make a decision toward the enlistment of FXTM’s services.
In this day and age of fast processes and data acquisition, trading through just about any brokerage is demanded by modern-day traders to render quick and evident results regardless of their tenure and experience. Admittedly, the traders of today seem to suffer with impatience and when they do not see immediate results or are faced with bad results, terms like “scam” and “fraud” are easily thrown around.
As this is the case, this review looks into the services of the brokerage FXTM with specific focus on its asset offerings, the live accounts that it makes available to its clients, and the trading software for each.
A Short Background of FXTM
Short hand for Forex Time, FXTM is a 2011 brokerage that specializes in, as the name suggests, Forex trading. It had also opened its clients to the CFDs markets, a wholly complex and high risk asset market.
While this is the case, traders are assured of FXTM’s legitimacy through its regulatory status as it is being sanctioned by leading financial authorities, the FCA and the CySEC.
Despite the security offered by FXTM’s legal standing, it must be kept in mind that trading Contracts are risky due to leverage. Fact of the matter is, it is highly likely that over 80% of investors will experience losses upon endeavoring in CFDs. As this is the case, the brokerage should be held blameless in the event that exponential losses are incurred.
What Assets Clients Can Access
As already mentioned, FXTM offers Foreign Currencies and CFDs as its primary instruments. To the contention of the review team, the offerings are somewhat limited in that the CFDs themselves are few in its selection. Stock CFDs are at a low while ETFs and Bonds are nowhere to be found.
On the other hand, the number of foreign currencies that FXTM offers are marginally higher than what its dirt competitors offer as these amount to 62 whereas others offer only 40 to 50 and above. FXTM’s Stock CFDs are way lower than its competitors. While others offer over 1,800, FXTM only manages to access 172 Stock CFDs. And the commodities? That is a different story altogether. With a measly amount of 3 commodities, it simply does not come to par with its contemporaries which offer 15 and up.
All in all, while the Forex offerings are decent, the entire picture strongly suggest that FXTM could do better, especially for its stature of good regulatory status and a decade’s worth of tenure.
Trading Software Experience
As FXTM does not have its own trading platform, it had chosen to partner up with MetaQuotes to offer MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 as its trading software of choice.
MT4 is the version that is available across all of FXTM’s account types. As with the other brokerages that offer the iteration of the software, MT4 works fast, is highly intuitive, has a clean interface, and can be customized for greater effect. Suffice it to say, the review team is satisfied with its performance, albeit with little desire to see the functions be updated so that it would make the search for specific ones easier.
With the MT5, we are glad to report that it lives up to its promise of being able to efficiently trade contracts.
What can be improved on further with the platforms is the authentication process for logging in. It is recommended that the developers up this by turning the one-step login system into a two-factor one for greater security.
Live Account Offers
Probably what is of note with among all of FXTM’s offerings is the number of account types that it makes available to its clients. A total of six (6) accounts may be opened which is of course dependent on the assets that are available for each.
Among these accounts, the Standard, ECN, ECN Zero, and FXTM Pro Accounts are the ones with the most accessible assets. Apart from the commonality in the trading software that clients are allowed to use, namely, MT4 and MT5, these accounts are all given the capability of offering Foreign Currencies, Commodity, Stock and Index CFDs. These only differ in the minimum deposit required for creation. For the Standard Account, only 100 ($/€/£) is asked from clients, ECN, 500 ($/€/£), ECN Zero, 200 ($/€/£), and the FXTM Pro, the most expensive among these given the lack of commission charges and low spreads, charging a total of 25,000 ($/€/£).
The remaining two accounts are the Cent account which is the cheapest in light of its minimum deposit amount of only 10 ($/€/£) and the Stock CFDs account which requires 100 ($/€/£) like the Standard Account. Both types are MT4-only accounts, sharing higher spreads and the lack of commissions.
Taken by face value, these accounts already allow for a wide selection for novice and seasoned traders alike, placing plenty of avenues to cover multiple assets.
Must We Trade Through FXTM?
If we are to look solely at the number of accessible assets, it is highly likely that we would be disappointed. And that is saying a lot given that the firm has already been in the industry for a decade and that it is backed up by two notable regulatory agencies.
The trading platforms and the live accounts are good facets of the firm. These provide good trading conditions and plenty of room to exercise good trading practices. However, the matter stands that this is overshadowed by the limited number of trading instruments. It is to the contention of the review team that FXTM furthers its reach to include more so that traders would not be entirely stuck with Forex and the ever-risky CFDs.